To ask if anyone here is an educational psychologist and if they enjoy it?

[Lockdownlumpy]

Is anyone here an educational psychologist? I'm a secondary teacher thinking of retraining, but I don't know anyone who is an ed psych to ask them all the questions I have.
If you are one, do you enjoy your job? What does a typical workday look like? Are there any downsides to the job?
Also wondering if there is actually demand for them, as I don't want to spend years retraining and then be jobless!
I'm also wondering if its realistic to think I might be able to work freelance rather than being employed by an LEA for example.

I have a close friend who’s an EP. They absolutely love it. They used to be a secondary teacher and feel EP work is much less stressful. They worked for a LA for a few years & now do private work. They seem to make lots of money & are never short of work!

I am in my final year of training as an EP, I used to be a secondary school teacher, then did an MSc Psych conversion, did two years as an assistant EP and started the course. It's been a long route to get here and I am now in my early 40s, but so glad I did it and I really like the role.

There are lots of EP jobs advertised in Local Authroities across the country, so no shortage of posts as far as I can see. I know a few people who are self-employed and work freelance- personally I really enjoy the joint work and practice development we do as an LA team and I learn a huge amount from it.

The starting salary for LA work is good - it goes up incremntally on something called the Soulbury Scale. Lots of infomration about training here on AEP website.

It is massively competative to get on, I was lucky to get on first time, some people in my year had applied 5+ times. Our training cohort comes from a wide range of backgrounds; teachers, TAs, youth workers, assistant psychologists and pastoral roles in schools. Feel free to PM me if I you like. And good luck- I am so much happier and so pleased I have retrained, I have a proper work life balance and look forward to my placement rather than having that feeling of dread on a Sunday evening.

A dayin the life of an EP might be interesting

some different perspectives on the role

Meant to say last link is a bit old but it does demonstarte different ways of working and approaching practice

There are a few facebook pages about Educational Psychology

www.facebook.com/groups/EdPsychApplicants

www.facebook.com/groups/574859252917409

I am finishing my conversion at the moment, and working, ready to hopefully follow the EP training pathway!

I would love to be an Ed psych. Mainly to replace my sons Ed psych who is shit.

Course content out of date and lots of EPs take a while to come into schools so kids are left unsupported in educational settings.

Be prepared for angry parents.

I'm not angry at my sons EP, she's just rubbish so anything she says is taken with a pinch of salt to be honest. She's clueless about adhd and lots of aspects of autism.

Go in with an open mind and that one child with autism is literally one child with autism. It's so different for everyone on the spectrum.

Please read in depth about adhd because what you think you know, what you read and how children actually present are very different things.

I wanted to retrain as an ed psych and did the psych degree on top of my own to convert.

However I couldn't comit to full time and the travelling away from family to plscements at the time.

The ones I visited in my borough seemed to like the job but there are only a few jobs in my borough, so they pointed out the need to be able to be flexible when you finish training too.

Seems great pay and good work life balance. I wish I did it prekids.

Oh I hadn't thought about the placement side of things. Can you get placed miles from home? That could be an issue as I have primary age children.

It’s worth speaking to the course leaders about placements. I have two primary kids and one in secondary and was given local placements because of this. I think it varies from course to course and I live in a big city where my course is and with different placement options so have been lucky.

Thanks for the answers everyone. I will have a read of the links and try to join the fb groups.

Email the uni and ask. I had replies from the 2 I could apply to and it looked like at least 1 of the 3 years I would be quite a way from home as they liked a variety of placements and couldn't guarantee local. It didn't help in my case that the unis themselves were about an hour away.

I wasnt prepared to take the time out from my children's lives for that long but we don't have family that can help etc. 9-5 an hours commute away just wasn't possible - but I'm aware it is for many people.

Oh my goodness, I've just joined the fb group and read loads of posts, I had no idea the doctorate course was as competitive as that, hundreds of applicants for 10-15 places suddenly sounds rather daunting!

It really is - but remember you're in a good place with your experience from teaching behind you.

Also many apply a few years out of uni and wont have that experience.

The key to it, from what I've seen is how you use psychology in an applied way - if you can talk about that, then you have a much better chance.

Have a look at the (pre)reading lists

www.ucl.ac.uk/educational-psychology/resources/decpsy_reading_list.pdf

www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/education/courses/postgraduate/app-ed-and-child-psy-reading-list.pdf

cdn.southampton.ac.uk/assets/imported/transforms/content-block/UsefulDownloads_Download/806A9CCEAC684934B640181F2EDB97F7/reading-list-2015.pdf

particularly the bits about applying psychology in education.

There is always a demand for Ed Psychs - the course is funded so you are contracted to work for 2 years post qualifying, but then you can go private - there are quite a few private ed psychs I think.

My cousin is an EP-she loves it, it’s well paid and there is a national shortage of them, but it is a very long training route. Do you have a psych degree?

You don’t need the teaching or Masters bits that you did when she qualified, but the doctorate is a long, hugely competitive and an expensive killer. Obviously intensely academic as well-the 80,000 word research nearly finished her off!

The LA EPs that I work with say there is definitely an agenda they must comply with, but there is plenty of scope to set yourself up privately, if the business/insurance/tax/private pension/sickness care doesn’t stress you out.

I am an ed psych, been one for many years.
I love the job. No angry parents but then I am not shit and do know about autism and ADHD :)

I trained before the doctorate. It's not a very family friendly route now especially for women.

Best things: I am super analytical and this is incredibly helpful. It's endlessly interesting. You can make a huge difference for individuals and in systems.

Worst things: you don't actually do the therapy like a speech therapist does because we are too scarce of a resource and too expensive. This is a bit frustrating as you are acting via others all the time and it's not uncommon that they don't properly put stuff into place. There are never enough if us and people don't get enough EP time and have to wait too long to see us. You have intense connections with families for shirt periods but it's rare that you get a long term relationship with a family (I have a very few long termers, lol). There are lots of reports to write which can be a tad dull after 15 years!

It's a very flexible job and the role itself is quite family friendly. I love it.

Incidentally as an LA EP I would never allow myself to be controlled by an LA agenda. I am paid for an unbiased professional opinion and that is what I give. To be fair my LA respects that.

I would really love to retrain as an EP (and currently work in parent education around autism/ challenging behaviour for peanuts) but just can't see how I would do the 3 years with placements right now. I so wish I had trained when it was possible for teachers to train via a masters. Or pre kids. Sigh.

@Rosesformama fancy training my sons EP? Bring her up to date with autism and adhd.

She told me my son couldn't have autism because he looked at her 😂 "with autism they have no eye contact whatsoever".

They apparently also need to be bouncing off walls 24/7 for adhd. I have never heard so much outdated knowledge come out one persons mouth. The scariest part is this EP is let loose on kids and their families to decide if they need support in school. In the 3 years she's been with my son, she's done absolutely nothing for him and had nothing to suggest support measure wise. The school, camhs and I did it and he's now thriving.

@seepingweeping
That does sound strange. Did you put in a complaint? She needs updated training.

@AvaCallanach I have and so have 3 other parents.

Our most recent meeting was more successful when she was supportive and in agreement of my sons triple diagnosis but when it was the first diagnosis of adhd, she said he wasn't hyperactive enough, didn't see any traits whatsoever and she said not to medicate him because he was fine and didn't stand out and that she didn't agree with the assessment report.

We medicated him regardless and she's seen the standard of work he's producing, he's now ahead with his work level and managed to make (and keep) a large group of friends. She's suddenly on board with all diagnosis and subsequent assessment reports and always had her suspicions.

EPs should be very careful when questioning diagnoses. I am glad you put in a complaint.

EPs, like GPs, are never specialists in every area. The trick is to know where your limitations are, be open about it, do some research and listen to those who are specialists (I include parents in that!)

@Rosesformama we need more EPs like you.