Rachel

My Summary

My Experience

Work Experience

Assistant Educational Psychologist for Aroa EPS from June 2024- present.
I am currently working as an AEP for a privately owned company. I’ll be working with families, schools, nurseries and most importantly, the children themselves to help break down their barriers to learning. I work from home 3 days a week and spend the other 2 days in educational settings based in the Wirral.

Assistant Psychologist for Orange Psychology
February-April 2024
I worked for an Educational Psychologist as an Assistant Psychologist, based both in an office and in educational settings.

Learning Support Assistant for a high school.
December 2023- February 2024
I worked in a high school as a learning support helping children learn both in the classroom as well as outside. I was also responsible for conducting several intervention sessions with select children, building upon their social, emotional, and mental health skills.

Research Officer for Bangor University
October 2022- October 2023
I worked as a Research Officer for Bangor University in Wales, the job was mainly remote. I assisted in the implementation of a literacy based intervention for Year 3 and 4 struggling post- Covid. This was simultaneously a research project where we were evaluating the effectiveness of the programme. I mainly worked with the schools, helping them to implement the intervention as well as tending to the research side of things too.

Volunteer for Childline
December 2020-August 2021
I was a volunteer counsellor for Childline again, as a more direct role of phone and online chat counsellor. I worked within a team to respond to children in crisis’ phone calls and 1-2-1 chats from around the UK, giving me an insight into the pressures and expectations of children in our society today.

Learning Support Assistant at Rathmore Grammar School
November 2020-July 2021
I was a Learning Support Assistant position in Rathmore Grammar School, where I was working 1:1 with a student who has Autism and selective mutism. My role involves working with the Pastoral Care Team to provide a programme of resources and tools to encourage communication from the student whilst helping them to learn and thrive within the school setting. I am hoping that this experience will give me a further insight into the provisions in place for those who need extra assistance within a mainstream school.


Au Pair In America
July 2019–August 2020
After I graduated in 2019, I wanted to travel, see other sociological situations and experience cultural differences, so I became an au pair in America, living with a family for a year as their au pair, looking after two children; a girl (6) and a boy (4). I was responsible for childcare and various household duties such as cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping. My adaptability was tested when I moved to the US to live with a family that I had never met in person however, I was excited to delve into a completely new and challenging lifestyle. During lockdown, I was responsible for home-schooling the 6-year-old girl whilst also engaging the 4-year-old boy in activities to teach effectively. This experience reignited my love of teaching and creatively helping others learn, for example, building a toy shop to illustrate how money works. This was a challenging experience as I was working within the family framework which could occasionally be chaotic, disorganised and conflicting. The negative impact of this on the children’s behaviour taught me much about the importance of involving the parents at all times in helping a child to learn.


The Den Nursery
February 2019- July 2019
During my final year of university, I worked at the Den Nursery to gain more experience with younger children. Through this role, I was able to engage children in games and activities, helping to nurture their physical and mental growth. This position strengthened my flexibility in responding to need and to recognise the care skills necessary to work with children - adaptability, creativity and open communication.


BeyondAutism
September 2017- July 2018
As part of my Psychology Bachelors, I completed a year-long professional placement in London working for a registered charity called Beyond Autism. I worked 1:1 with children aged 5 to 13 who have autism and receive specialist education in the form of Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) and Verbal Behaviour (VB). My role involved the teaching of essential skills, observation of behaviour and the recording and documenting of children’s learning and behaviour whilst liaising with a multi-disciplinary team, including Speech and Language and Occupational Therapists. Through regular observations carried out by my Managers, I was able to implement feedback to identify any shortcomings and improve my teaching techniques. Psychological theories were of paramount importance during this year, an example of which would be the use of systematic desensitisation with one of my students, to reduce their fear of hand dryers.

My Qualifications

GCSEs: 2A*s, 7As, 1B including Maths and English (September 2011- June 2013)
A Levels: BBC (September 2013-June 2014)
University Degree: 2:1 class honours degree in Psychology with Professional Placement, Queen’s University, Belfast (2015-2019)
Masters Degree: Psychology of Education University of Manchester (2021-22)

My Availability

I am looking for flexible babysitting on weekday evenings and at the weekends.

My Fees

• Babysitting from £15.00 per hour