Community Educational Psychology Service

Support and Information for Children (Secondary)

Educational Psychologists feel that it is very important to know children and young people's views. It is also very important that children and young people know about Educational Psychologists and their work.

What is an Educational Psychologist?

An Educational Psychologist is someone who has trained to work with young people. Educational Psychologists have all studied Psychology, Child Development and Learning. They try to understand how young people behave and learn.

Who does an Educational Psychologist see?

Educational Psychologists work with young people, parents or carers, teachers and other adults. They work with young people who need some help with:

Their school work
Coping with secondary school
Physical difficulties
Getting on with others
Their speech and language skills; and
Coming to school

Why might I meet an Educational Psychologist? What benefits are there?

Usually your teacher or another adult has asked the Educational Psychologist for help. They are interested in your progress. They want to try and help you do even better. The Educational Psychologist will talk about this when you meet them.

The Special Educational Needs Coordinator or your Form Tutor may suggested that you meet an Educational Psychologist for a number of reasons:

To help you complete your work more easily
To make better use of your time
To consider how to improve your reading and spelling
To help you set personal goals that are possible to achieve
To help you get on better with others
So that your school can ask for extra help for you with your exams

Where will I see an Educational Psychologist?

Sometimes Educational Psychologists watch you work in class. Sometimes they will work with you by yourself in a quiet place and see the work that you do. Some Educational Psychologists visit young people and their families at home. Sometimes the Educational Psychologist will need to talk to your parents or carers alone.

What will happen when I see an Educational Psychologist?

The Educational Psychologist is interested in how you work, learn and get on with others. The Educational Psychologist will talk with you about your views and concerns. The Educational Psychologist will ask you about yourself. This will include questions about the things you like doing, don't like doing, what you are good at and things you have difficulty with.

The Educational Psychologist may ask you to do some work to help understand more about your learning. You may complete some work together.

Educational Psychologists work with young people, parents, carers and other grown ups in order to help young people make progress in school.

The Educational Psychologist might talk with you about:

Your past experiences of education
Your hopes for the future
Things which have helped you to learn in the past
Your views about your strengths and weaknesses; and
Any particular concerns which you have

If you find reading or writing difficult for example, then the Educational Psychologist might do some work with you so that they can plan how to help you in the future. This can be done for other areas of work, like number work. The Educational Psychologist might ask you or your teachers to show them some of your work.

What will happen afterwards?

The Educational Psychologist will often write some information about the work you did together and what will happen next. Usually nothing will be written which you think should remain private.

The Educational Psychologist may meet you again to see how things are going. They may suggest meeting you together with school staff to plan what do next. You can ask to see the Educational Psychologist again if you wish.

If you have any further questions the Educational Psychologist will be very happy to try and answer them when you meet them, or you can talk to the Special Educational Needs Coordinator. In the meantime, we, at the Community Educational Psychology Service look forward to meeting you soon.

Information for Secondary Pupils PDF 236K

Community Educational Psychology Service for Key Stage 3-4 PDF 81K

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