Guidance and Educational Psychology Department
Our Guidance Department was born from the school’s desire to have an efficient tool to round out our work as teachers and educators. The pupils’ process of moving to maturity, the teaching-learning systems, the complexities of family life and other temporary processes affect our task, and both teachers and parents often need the help of professionals to find ways of resolving the educational challenges that may arise.The Guidance Department has a key role in identifying as soon as possible any maturational problem symptoms in children, making it possible to correct them with higher degrees of success and ease. The department's door is open to pupils, workers and families alike for those moments when things are not going as smoothly as they should either on a personal or an academic level.
The department has ample experience and training in the field of child and teenage educational psychology: specific learning difficulties, special educational needs, emotional difficulties, high capabilities and a pedagogical and therapeutic treatment. The team, who act as advisors to parents, pupils and teachers, is made up of 2 psychologists, 1 speech therapist, 2 teachers in the field of therapeutic pedagogy who are backed up by further 6 teachers.
The department is a differentiating service that deals with the educational needs of each student individually while keeping in mind the diversity among the pupils. It is aware of the specific emotional and educational demands that exist in order to establish a multi-curricular approach in each individual case. The department works alongside the families to adapt the resources to each pupil's needs, boosting their aptitudes so that each one of them can attain a level of educational excellence.
Personalised attention for each pupil
Providing personalised attention for each individual student is the main role of the Guidance Department. Individualised monitoring enables them to design programmes which allow each pupil to develop at their own pace. With this aim in mind, the pupils receive academic and professional orientation and advice so they can properly plan their goals and objectives, as well as their time and study programmes.
The Guidance Department provides support for teachers, families and pupils in the case of new students. The department takes part in the flow of information among tutors and advises students during the whole time so that they adapt to school as well as possible, while taking the pupil's well-being and needs into account at all times.
Diversity and psychological assessment
The Guidance Department focuses its work on the diversity among the students in order to prevent, detect and respond to the main difficulties the pupils encounter during their time at school. Being aware of this diversity, the department seeks solutions to learning problems (attention problems, laterality, reading/writing) and emotional problems (relationships with classmates, behaviour, or problems that are natural at certain ages). Difficulties related to High Capabilities (gifted and talented children, those with intellectual precocity) are also dealt with by the department.
Support for families and teachers
The Guidance Department works in collaboration with tutors, teachers, families to boost the individual capabilities of each pupil. The department is available for enquiries from families and organises sessions that go from the Parents School conferences to debates and workshops aimed at fostering the all-round development of the children. Finally, the role of the department is important in the flow of information between families and teachers, where the teachers work as a team so that the families receive the relevant information at all times.