Russell Hounslow
BSc Psychology 2005
MSc Applied Psychological Research 2006
Russell joined the Community Educational Psychology Service in Nottingham City Council in 2012, where he works with children and young people, their families and teachers through mainstream schools and a special school for children with severe learning difficulties.
“The focus is on applying psychology to identify and understand the needs (learning, emotional, behavioural, and social, etc) of children and young people and working to make sure the right support is put into place. There's lots of multi-agency working so that on a typical day, I'd be working alongside teachers, social workers and paediatricians as well as senior local authority managers.”
While cursing his undergraduate degree, Russell decided to pursue a career in educational psychology.
“I knew I needed more experience and knowledge to go forward and stayed on to do a Masters degree. After the Masters I spent a year working as a mentor in a secondary school where I worked and supported children with a range of problems.
“What was really good about the university was the emphasis on future career paths. I was encouraged to start thinking about the future during my studies and made the effort to secure voluntary work and get work experience in schools.
“While at university I did a fair bit of volunteering, which included a mentoring scheme in a local secondary school, a teaching assistant’s role at a primary school and as an advocacy worker at a mental health hospital. In the end it was really helpful, as training to become an educational psychologist meant I had to spend a couple of years working in schools after graduation – so the school experience I’d built up at University was definitely a big help. It meant that when I went for interviews, I had real examples that I could talk about and it wasn’t all hypothetical. It also meant that I had professional references that were directly relevant to the job I was applying for.”