By Preeya Chibbra As a first-year trainee educational psychologist, I take a lot of inspiration from the professional community. One example of this is using one-page profiles as a way of introducing ourselves to children and young people before we begin working with them. I was interested in how these may be used in a reciprocal way. I did this by creating a summary report for a pupil in a similar format to the one-page profile, to mirror the one I had sent them. This represented the voices of the child, parent and school staff in a way that was accessible and engaging for the pupil. It also ..read more

By Ellie Turner, Kate Jobson and Julie Smith-Lewis This year Division of Educational and Child Psychology (DECP) conference for trainee educational psychologists was online for the first time. So when we logged in at  9:15am sharp, there was no conference room to find and no babble of excited trainee educational psychologists glancing at pieces of paper, trying to find their way around. There was just us at our desks with a coffee and a laptop.  This was our first conference as trainees, and although it was held remotely, we found it very engaging, and we came away with practical str ..read more

By Paige Garbett, Zoë Morrice and Julia Howe Photo by Alexas Fotos on Pexels.com Background to the Project This academic year one of the priorities for the educational psychology team at the University of Birmingham has been to complete a review of our curriculum using ideas from the decolonising movement. The idea of decolonising the curriculum has its roots in the Rhodes Must Fall movement, and this is discussed in an earlier blog post that we published in 2018. The impetus for the current review came from two sources: 1. an Action Plan developed by the tutor team in response to the many c ..read more

By Emma Dove Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com During the first UK COVID-19 lockdown educational psychology services had to find new ways to support children and young people, their families and schools. One example of this was through the delivery of online training sessions for school staff. In my experiences of online training for schools during COVID-19, I encountered both strengths and barriers to effective training development and delivery. Despite this change in the way in which training was delivered evaluations from school staff were positive and suggest that further use of on ..read more

By Laura Halton Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com At the end of my first year on the initial training course for educational psychologists there were a year’s worth of university discussions, literature and placement practice circulating like a Ferris-wheel of reflection in my mind. Surprisingly – for me – none more so than my understanding and participation in supervision. The BPS accreditation standards for educational psychology courses (2019) state that supervision is a ‘critical component of safe, effective, reflective, ethical psychological practice’. An established practice among ..read more

By Dr Sasha Simon and Dr Anjam Sultana Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com In part one of this blog, the authors outlined six key concepts relevant to racism, in order to support race talk within Educational Psychology Services.  In part two, we focus on the emotional impact of racism and how we, as educational psychologists, can support colleagues who have been affected by racism and the cumulative effect of George Floyd’s death. There has been relatively little research, particularly in the UK, into the emotional impact of racism.  Existing research has shown the impact of race-re ..read more

By Ella Mansfield Photo by Edward Jenner on Pexels.com In January, I wrote a blog post about what an average week is like for a year 1 trainee educational psychologist at the University of Birmingham. At that point, I had no idea that in a matter of months I would be continuing the course from my parents’ home, writing essays from my childhood bedroom and starting my second placement remotely, having never met any of my new colleagues face to face. Back in March, the university decided not to continue face-to-face lectures. This was a relief, in a way, as sitting in close proximity to twelve ..read more

By Dawn Dance Finding our more about the role In my previous working life I had never met an educational psychologist despite working for nearly ten years in a Post 16 and secondary school setting. As part of my application I had the chance to talk to some educational psychologists and to read about the role but I struggled to make sense of what that meant in practice. Being on the course and my placements has shaped my understanding of the role of an educational psychologist. Here I want to share some of the key aspects of my learning during my first year of training. Early Days During my fir ..read more

Photo by Vlada Karpovich on Pexels.com     By Dr Anjam Sultana, Dr Cherelle McDonald, Dr Maninder Sangar, Dr Sasha-Louise Simon and Dr Sidra Aslam George Floyd’s murder has caused the resurgence of strong emotions of hurt, anger, and loss with recollections of racism in the UK and within our local contexts. It has taken its toll on Black educational psychologists (EPs) emotionally, physically and mentally. Many have articulated feelings synonymous with grief, burnout and anxiety. Black and ethnic minority EPs, within safe spaces, have articulated their inherent feelings of distress ..read more

By Haley Fong, Tara Janda and Anita Soni Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com     In this blog post we explore the concept of trans-cultural supervision and how we have used this in our practice. The context of the supervision is between Anita who is an academic and professional tutor and two of her Year 1 trainees: Haley and Tara. Here they share their use of experiences of trans-cultural supervision. Background Anita: Tara, Haley and I have been exploring trans-cultural supervision in our sessions through undertaking an activity together from Hawkins and Shohet (2012) to help ..read more