Current Educational Psychology Projects

The EPS continue to offer supportive early years community clusters within some locality areas. The cluster groups generally meet a few times each year and have included a mix of training, discussion, information-sharing and complex case discussion. 

Staff have worked collaboratively with EA and Health and Social Care Trust (HSCT) colleagues to develop and provide timely, responsive training that meets the needs of the cluster group. 

It is hoped that the Early Years Community Clusters model can be extended in the future with ongoing collaboration with Early Years IMPACT team. 

The EPS, in collaboration with the EA Local IMPACT teams, have been supporting a range of pre-school and school settings through the provision of regional online solution-focused hubs (SFH). 

The solution-focused hubs provide setting staff with the opportunity to engage in a supportive, reflective professional discussion with a small multi-specialist team. 

Settings are provided with an action plan that summarises the co-created strategies and resources discussed. 

Settings meet with the facilitator and co-facilitator for further discussion/review around six weeks after the initial meeting. 

Project Aims:

To provide knowledge and support to schools through evidence-based training that focuses on promoting the emotional health and wellbeing of all staff.

To support schools to create a positive and nurturing school culture, develop a user-friendly staff wellbeing policy, and use peer supervision and support strategies.

This has been achieved through the delivery of training to school staff and facilitation of cluster meetings. It has made a positive contribution to school policy development and culture around staff wellbeing.

Project Aims:

• To provide knowledge and support to schools through evidence-based training that focuses on promoting the emotional health and wellbeing of all staff.
• To support schools to create a positive and nurturing school culture, develop a user-friendly staff wellbeing policy, and use peer supervision and support strategies.

This has been achieved through the delivery of training to school staff and facilitation of cluster meetings. It has made a positive contribution to school policy development and culture around staff wellbeing. 

The Special School group has sought to ensure that all special schools across Northern Ireland have access to support from our service. The work of the group includes:

• Solution focused consultations
• Development and delivery of training relevant to most pressing needs
• Facilitation of cluster groups
• Attendance at multi-disciplinary meetings
• Collaboration with Trust and other EA services
• Delivery of training to other EA services
• Peer supervision and CPD sessions for members of our team who support their local special schools
• Development and delivery of training to early career teaching staff

The work of the group has been received positively and is valued by special schools, and it has been noted that, “This model of EP support and provision has been invaluable in helping us build capacity, upskill our staff and make more effective provision for our pupils”.

Aims:

• To develop and extend a strong research culture within our service
• To promote opportunities for staff to engage in high quality research projects and practices
• To promote the dissemination and recognition of good practice already happening in our team. 
• This is being achieved through:
• The development of a consistent set of pre- and post-training evaluation questions
• Literature reviews to inform strategic decision making
• Collaboration with QUB to promote research ideas and priorities from within our service
• Development of a research mentor team for Trainee Educational Psychologists

The nurture team works in collaboration with our colleagues from the Nurture Advisory and Support Service to provide cluster group meetings to schools that have a Department of Education funded nurture provision. 

These cluster meetings can include solution focused discussions, dissemination of relevant resources and the delivery of relevant training to the staff who work in nurture provision.

EPS are working in collaboration with EA LIT and SDS staff to address the gap in current provision in training and resources to support those experiencing maths difficulties because of:

• Dyscalculia
• Language Processing 
• Working Memory 
• Visual Spatial Processing
• Executive Functioning
• Maths Anxiety

We aim to:

• Develop and deliver training to support schools in understanding, identifying and addressing these needs
• Compile a bank of evidence-based tools that will help remediate or compensate for skill deficits
• Promote the benefits of incorporating a growth mindset when teaching maths
• Support schools in developing a unified ‘maths language’

Our service delivers a core psychology service to children and IME settings across preschool, primary and post-primary phases. This core delivery includes consultation, assessment, intervention and training as needed. 

Specific pieces of work in recent years have included:

• A literature review of biliteracy, and, a statistical analysis, in 2020, of referrals to literacy provision for children from Irish medium schools, with a comparison group from English medium schools. 
• A survey was carried out with IME schools about their views and needs in relation to the EPS. 
• CPD has occurred within the EPS for those supporting or interested in IME settings. This CPD has included understanding bilingualism, EA policy and adaptations within EP work for robust and ethical practice. Sharing good practice, informal peer support and dissemination of translated documents (e.g. leaflets for CYP) has also taken place.
• Dissemination to the EPS has taken place of IME information, for example, sharing newsletters and publications from Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta. Members of the EPS have attended IME conferences, including sessions as Gaeilge, and a symposium in Stormont for the release of key research.
• Other sources of information useful to IME work have been promoted, including external websites (e.g. COGG, Gaeloideachas) and the resources from within the EA services (e.g. Cúig in Airde, Croí na Gaelscolaíochta, the LIT c2k Teams site Gaeloideachas).  
• An audit of language skills across the EPS took place and contributions were made to related policy (e.g. EA language policy). An appreciation for Irish as a language has been informally promoted colleague to colleague in complement to duties and roles. 
• Research in the area of IME has been followed with a summary bank of this available to the EPS. Specific research links have been made, for example, with psychologists in training carrying out IME related thesis and a current in-house project called Scoil Dar Linn gathering the views of children with SEN in gaelscoileanna.
• Promotion of IME has taken place within the psychology profession via a presentation at the Association of Education Psychology Conference in 2023. The EPS has also presented on psychological needs and support with IME to the EA's Board in March 2024.