"A day in the life of an assistant psychologist can look very different. We work alongside educational psychologists to support gaining pupil views and finding out about where their areas of strengths and weaknesses are.
Once such method I love to use to explore this with a young person is called Dynamic Assessment. This involves using activities or games to see what a young person can do and what kind of support helps them learn. Whilst it may look like we’re just playing a game together, there are a lot of skills that a young person uses when playing them! Using this information and in conversation with them, we can think about how this links to learning in the classroom and what support will help. This can then help to inform what provision is recommended in the psychological advice. I always enjoy how insightful young people can be about what helps them when you ask them!
As an assistant psychologist, I can also be involved in multi-agency meetings called Solution Circles. These are meetings where school staff can talk about a child in their setting, with professionals from a range of disciplines to brainstorm and problem solve what support could be possible for the child. These are completed virtually, and my role is to share my screen to show a visual recording of what is spoken about. This allows everyone to see what has been said in the moment and helps to keep the meeting focused." - Cassii, August 2024
"As an assistant psychologist, my role involves supporting the work of educational psychologists, including meeting and working with children and young people, their families and their educational settings.
A really important part of the role is to work in a collaborative way, and make sure the child is at the heart (working in a person-centred way). One way I will often support this is using a PATH, or Planning Alternative Tomorrows With Hope. This can mean in a morning the educational psychologist and I will bring together the child and their important people and use a BIG piece of paper to visually record a conversation about how things are going for the child, their dreams for the future, and steps they can take towards this. This information can then help make sure everyone around the child is on the same page about how best to support them, based on the child’s views.
Another important part of the assistant psychologist role involves being in and promoting reflective spaces to help build our practice. So, my afternoon will often include meeting with other assistants, where we bring questions around current pieces of work or broader topics within educational psychology. We will then discuss and support each other with these questions using different discussion methods, guided by an educational psychologist in the team." - Georgia, August 2024
