The Role

I have been working as an Assistant Educational Psychologist for a private company called EdPsychs. The role is based in a primary school to work directly with children to implement psychological interventions and advice in the areas of literacy and numeracy, anxiety, working memory, language, emotional needs, behavioural difficulties, social and communication skills, attention and concentration and motivation. I also deliver training to teachers, teaching assistants and children to improve the teaching and learning. I complete assessments, observations, screeners, consultations and follow-up meetings, track EP interventions and contribute to the evaluation process. I am fortunate enough to shadow EP’s fortnightly which has allowed me to gain the experience needed to get onto the educational psychology doctorate program starting in September.

 

Skills

 

For this role, a minimum of a 2:1 in psychology was required and I have been using the topics taught at undergraduate level to aid my practice. For example, I may complete a Boxall profile screener on a child if their behaviours are consistent with insecure attachment (as taught in the degree) and thus I would introduce play-based interactions to improve their social and emotional development. Additionally, Maslow’s hierarchy of need is often used to assess whether the child’s physical and psychological needs have been met before they are ready to learn. These examples are just to name a few.

 

The Application Process

 

There were 200 applications for 10 places. I had to send my CV to the company director through Linked-in and was offered an interview. I was given a list of 10 psychological questions to research such as ‘how do people learn?’ and ‘How has John Hattie contributed to educational psychology?’. I was also given a topic to present to the panel: the concept of flow. This interview process was a very good experience for my doctoral interview.

 

Advice

 

After my degree, I knew that I wanted to continue a career in psychology but at the time my preference was towards the clinical field. I started a part time masters in mental health psychology as I was aware that the competition was very high. At the same time of starting this, I started the role as an AEP which is where I learnt more about the world of educational psychology and my interest grew significantly. My advice for future psychology graduates would be to speak to different psychologists and ask to shadow them for a day; it is only when you see them in practice that you get an idea of what the role entails. There are so many ways to get into the psychology field but it does take resilience so consider further study, voluntary work, or low-paid jobs at first because it will pay off. For me, my voluntary work as a research assistant at Bournemouth university, my masters study and low paid role as an AP have all been very important for me to get onto the doctorate.