Aberdeenshire Council
Educational Psychology Service Plan 2017-2020
Introduction and Vision
This plan sets out our priorities for improvement over the next three years. Our work is informed by the Scottish Government National Outcomes and contributes to the Aberdeenshire National Improvement Framework, and the Education and Children’s Services Plan.
Strategicpriorities from Education and Children’s Services Plan:
- To develop excellence and equity
- To embed the principles of GIRFEC
- To provide support in developing inclusive, vibrant and healthy communities
We contribute to the following areas of the Aberdeenshire National Improvement Framework:
- Improvement in attainment (particularly literacy and numeracy)
- Improvement in young people’s health and wellbeing
- Closing the Gap Between the Most and Least Disadvantaged Children
We have a vision of Aberdeenshire where psychology is at the heart of learning and teaching, enabling all children and young people to be mentally healthy, and to develop the skills and confidence to achieve beyond expectations.
The Educational Psychology Service is located within Education and Children’s Services. We work at the levels of the individual child and family, the establishment, and the community, as well as playing a role in local authority, regional and national developments. Aberdeenshire EPS representation at each of these levels can be seen in appendix 1. All of our work is delivered through a consultation model of service delivery in partnership with others.
Our primary goal is to apply psychology and use research to make a positive difference to teaching, lifelong learning and overall wellbeing for children and young people in Aberdeenshire. We work to deliver two key outcomes:
- Improved attainment and reducing the attainment gap
- Improved mental health for children and young people
To achieve these outcomes we have two key development themes:
- Visible Learning
- Nurturing Establishments
Visible Learning:we aim to build capacity within and across school leadership teams to implement and evaluate evidence-informed practice. This will be done by supporting school leaders to use Visible Learning for school improvement using practitioner enquiry methodology. All schools across Aberdeenshire will also be offered an introduction to John Hattie’s Visible Learningwhich encourages schools to be evidence informed and teachers to become evaluators of their own teaching. We will encourage schools to track the progress of every child and work with schools to use data and evidence to identify and reduce inequity. We will go on to build capacity of practitioners to understand the power of feedback and metacognition to support good learning by developing a flexible CLPL toolkit.
Nurturing Establishments:we aim to support the positive mental health of all children and young people, as well as more vulnerable learners. We will do this by drawing on research on attachment, resilience and positive mental health to develop a shared understanding of a “nurturing establishment” across Aberdeenshire. We will then develop CLPL pathways which support leaders and practitioners to implement and embed whole school nurturing practices and systems in a sustainable and inclusive way, as well as targeted nurture interventions when appropriate. Over the course of our three year improvement plan, we will tailor this work to the needs of secondary schools, primary schools and early learning and childcare settings. Our work on improving mental health is also fundamental to improving attainment for every child.
Overall this year for both themes there will be a greater focus on parental engagement and the voice of the child.
2017 - 2020
VISIBLE LEARNINGLong-term objective (broken down year-by-year) / Intended Outcome (What high level data do we want to make a difference to?) / Evaluation of Impact (Lower level qualitative and quantitative data) / Responsible SLT /
Lead Practitioner /
Group Members / Partners
VL long term aim 1:
Build capacity within and across school leadership teams to implement and evaluate evidence-informed practice. This will be done by supporting school leaders to use Visible Learning for school improvement using practitioner enquiry methodology.
Year 1: 35 school leaders from across the local authority willbe supported to useVisible Learning for school improvement. This will be delivered across 4 interactive workshops using the practitioner enquiry methodology.
Year 2: Visible Learning to support school improvement will be delivered using practitioner enquiry methodology in at least one Aberdeenshire cluster.
Develop opportunities at a regional level to share the impact of using Visible Learning for school improvement.
Year 3: Planned roll out of offer to all schools. / Ideas…
- Improved Education Scotland school reports
- Improved QIVs in Aberdeenshire
- Attainment data
- PIPS value added data, INCAS
- New national standardised assessments
- What else?
Ashley McGregor
Lead EP
Laura Hubbard
Group
Emma Brown
Stuart Bull
Lesley Stewart
Liz Bolton / School leaders
Long-term objective (broken down year-by-year) / Intended Outcome (What high level data do we want to make a difference to?) / Evaluation of Impact (Lower level qualitative and quantitative data) / Responsible SLT /
Lead Practitioner /
Group Members / Partners
VL long-term aim 2:
Build capacity within and across school leadership teams to implement and evaluate evidence-informed practice. This will be done by offering an Introduction to Visible Learning research and evidence based practice to all schools in Aberdeenshire.
Year 1: Develop a toolkit and ALDO course on an Introduction to Visible Learning and evidence based practice.
Year 2: Planned roll out of offer to all schools
Year 3: embedded into other section of the plan (below) / Improved Education Scotland school reports
Improved QIVs in Aberdeenshire
Attainment data
What else? / SLT Link
Anne Wilson
Lead EP
Karen Findlay
Group
Claire Mustard
Daniela Cubeddu
Morag Donaldson
Sara Rasmussen
Long-term objective (broken down year-by-year) / Intended Outcome (What high level data do we want to make a difference to?) / Evaluation of Impact (Lower level qualitative and quantitative data) / Responsible SLT /
Lead Practitioner /
Group Members / Partners
VL long-term aim 3:
Build capacity of practitioners to understand the power of feedback and metacognition to support good learning
Year 1:
Develop a flexible multi-level CLPL toolkit
Year 2:
Deliver and evaluate the impact of authority-wide CLPL on metacognition and feedback
Year 3:Planned roll-out of offer to all schools. / SLT Link:
Louise Goodall
Lead EPs
Helen Mackay/
Jen Sutherland
Group
Elayne Steel
Carolyn Oddie
Susan Taylor
NURTURE
Long-term objective (broken down year-by-year) / Intended Outcome (What high level data do we want to make a difference to?) / Evaluation of Impact (Lower level qualitative and quantitative data) / Responsible SLT /
Lead Practitioner /
Group Membership / Partners
Nurture long-term aim: Develop an Aberdeenshire vision of nurture. This will draw on attachment and resilience research and have clear links to mental health prevention and early intervention. We will developan associated toolkit and clear local CLPL pathways. This will be tailored to each sector (EY, Primary, Secondary), and will cover three main areas:
- Universal (whole establishment)
- Targeted intervention
- Family Nurture
- Work with multi-disciplinary partners to develop an Aberdeenshire visionof nurture.
- Develop a resource toolkitand local CLPL pathways for nurture, covering:
- Universal (whole establishment)
- Targeted intervention
- Family Nurture
- Work with representatives from each sector to tailor the toolkit to their needs.
- Deliver in at least one cluster (early years setting, primary, academy, family centre)
- Evaluation
- Awareness raising of toolkit
- Roll out of CLPL offer at cluster offer via named EP
Carron Douglas
- Universal
Ashley McGregor
Laura Cowe (Nurture)
Morag Brice (Secondary)
Emma Moore (IPT)
SW Team Leader tbc
- Targeted intervention
Tasha Robinson
Wendy Bland (Nurture)
- Family Nurture
Sylvia Rae (EYT)
Fiona Thomson (Primary)
Mhairi Stirling (EY)
Gary Crawford (SW)
CLD representative tbc / ASN Team
Early Years Team
PrimaryHT
Secondary PT SFL
IP Teacher
Nurture Teachers
Social Work
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