Educational Psychology Assessment
We know just how worrying it is when things aren’t going well for your child. You might not know what you can do, or where to turn for help. You may already know that you’d like RocketEd to step in and investigate what’s happening for your child, but you might not be sure if that’s actually what’s needed and you’d prefer just to talk things through with us first. That’s fine, we offer a range of services for parents and carers to involve us as much, or as little, as necessary. We are here to help you when you need us.
You might be concerned that there's a problem with your child’s learning. Perhaps they’re not achieving their full potential, or are struggling in particular areas such as literacy or numeracy. They may be unhappy or isolated at school. Maybe they’re not achieving their targets or milestones, nor making adequate progress. It could be that something’s started to deteriorate and you’re not sure why. You might think your child needs more support than they’re currently getting.
We are highly trained practitioners who bring knowledge, experience and expertise to the table. Although every child is different, with varied strengths, needs, experiences and stories to tell, we know what can help break down barriers to learning, so that they are able to fly high and progress.
We can give you answers. Through assessment, consultation and observation, we will use our training and skills to find out what is going wrong and give advice on what’s needed to put it right. This process usually follows the following steps:
Firstly, we will gather information from you and, with your agreement, from your child’s school about their history, current presentation, performance and concerns.
Secondly, we will investigate. We will conduct an individual assessment through which we work with your child to explore their cognitive skills, their attainments and their view of themselves as a learner. This will include as necessary, consultations, observations and standardised or non-standardised assessments and will usually take place at your child’s school or at your home. Whenever possible, we like to conduct consultations with those who know your child best at school and to observe them in their educational setting.
Thirdly, we will feed back our findings to you, make recommendations and discuss possible ways forward. This will be via a detailed written report outlining our findings and including information about what we consider your child needs in place at home or at school.
In addition to or as part of individual cognitive and literacy assessments, some examples of the services we offer for children and young people are:
Helping the child to think about their own thinking (‘metacognition’) and understand their own learning needs, so that they are able to become more independent, able to meet their own needs and communicate these to others;
Transition support. By working with the child and their parents and carers, we can help successfully prepare children and young people for transition, whether into primary, secondary or 16+ provision;
Representing the child’s voice in multi-agency work, for example by participating in child-centred reviews, panels or planning meetings alongside or on behalf of the child.
In addition to individual assessments, other ways we support parents and carers include:
In-person or remote consultations to help navigate school or local authority processes and systems, and work out what to do next;
Advocacy, for example by attending meetings about your child alongside you or on your behalf;
Reviewing and interpreting school reports and documentation and helping you think about what questions to ask;
Advice and support to understand implications for your child in school if they have an emerging or established need, or a diagnosis which impacts on their learning;
Explaining SEND processes and systems in a way that supports understanding what’s happening and what to do next.
All of these can be arranged on an ad-hoc basis, as part of an individual assessment or through a longer-term retained partnership with us.
Parents and carers may find it helpful to read our Frequently Asked Questions section, which gives more information about what to expect if you enlist the involvement of a RocketEd Educational Psychologist.
Contact us for a free, no obligation initial chat to talk about how we can help you to make things better.
RocketEd’s Principal Educational Psychologist is Hannah Lethbridge.
