Educational psychology

Bilingual and ethnic pupil support

Many children in Southwark are from homes where English is an additional language (EAL), rather than spoken as a first language. Whilst learning more than one language can aid a child's language and learning development, some children have language difficulties, and this affects the progress they then make.

Educational psychologists are trained to assess whether a child's lack of progress or difficulties at school are determined by English being an additional language, or whether there are other special educational needs (SEN).

We're committed to assisting pupils learning English as an additional language across all educational areas.

Within the educational psychology service, specialist educational psychologists (EPs) provides support on these issues to:

• individual pupils
• parents and carers
• schools and other educational settings
• other psychologists

Training and staff development can be provided on issues such as:

• bilingualism and second language acquisition
• factors affecting the achievement of pupils learning EAL
• effective interventions for EAL pupils
• distinguishing between language learning needs and SEN

You can visit our training page for further details. 

The specialist educational psychologist also contributes to the strategies within the wider children's services department, aimed at raising the attainment of pupils from minority ethic groups, and developing better practices.

Page last updated: 12 November 2019