Educational Psychology

What is our Educational Psychology offer

At Psychology 360, we work directly with Leicestershire and Leicester City schools through our Service Level Agreements (SLAs).  Our SLAs are tailored to meet individual school’s requirements, varying from full, comprehensive packages of support to smaller bespoke SLAs to complement existing Educational Psychology input.  There are no minimum or maximum limit to the size of an SLA.

As experienced Educational Psychologists, we bring knowledge and experience of working with a range of educational settings and special educational needs.  For casework, we use a ‘360 model’ to consider a range of information and perspectives to understand problem situations, enabling us to work with you in applying psychology to bring positive change for your pupils, school, and families.  We provide a written record of our involvement which captures the shared understanding and includes collaboratively agreed actions and next steps.

Collaborative conversations, openness, and a strengths-based approach underpin our work, and sit at the heart of everything we do.   We pride ourselves on providing a friendly, supportive, and personalised service.

To find our more or to request an SLA, please contact us at enquiries@psychology360.co.uk  or  0116 497 5650 www.psychology360.co.uk

Dr Helen Smith 

I have a Doctorate of Applied Educational Psychology from the University of Nottingham.  Prior to training as an Educational Psychologist, I worked as an Assistant Psychologist in a CAMHS funded project providing therapeutic support and early intervention work with children, young people and their families.

For the first ten years of my career, I was a primary school teacher and senior leader, working in schools across Leicestershire.

Recent examples of my work include:

  • Using dynamic assessment approaches to understand barriers to learning for individual children and young people, and to identify useful next steps to support their learning progress.
  • Using Cognitive Behavioural approaches with children and young people, and the adults around them, to understand anxiety and to promote helpful thinking, behaviours and habits.
  • Using a SCERTS framework with staff to develop their understanding of a child in their Autism Specific Unit, and to collaboratively plan additional support strategies to promote his social and emotional development.
  • Providing advice and support to school staff during monthly multi professional Inclusion Forums, with case discussions spanning the full range of special educational need.

I have experience of creating and delivering a wide range of training packages for educational settings, and have coordinated the ELSA programme for a Local Authority.  Training I have recently delivered includes:

  • ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant training)
  • Understanding and Supporting Children with Attentional Difficulties, including ADHD.
  • Literacy Difficulties and ‘Dyslexia’: Understanding what it means and how we can support
  • Selective Mutism and Reluctant Speakers

Dr Sharon Girdham

I have a Doctorate of Applied Educational Psychology from the University of Nottingham.  Prior to training as an Educational Psychologist, I spent 14 years working as a teacher and senior leader across the Primary phase both in the UK and abroad.

Recent examples of my work include:

  • Using motivational interviewing with secondary aged pupils experiencing emotional based school refusal in order to support their attendance at school.
  • Supporting language and communication development for Early Years children.
  • Using the principles of dynamic assessment to promote children’s learning and progress, through training and coaching with school staff.
  • Supporting a school to develop their behaviour policy based on inclusion and relational approaches.

I have experience of creating and delivering a wide range of training packages for educational settings.  Training I have recently delivered includes:

  • Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction.
  • Brief Functional Assessment and Multi Element Plan (to support in understanding and supporting challenging behaviour in school).
  • Emotion Coaching.
  • ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant training)