Educational Psychologist

ABOUT US:

POSITION OVERVIEW:

To help ALA students learn, stay well, and thrive as they live and study away from home, by assessing and supporting their learning and emotional needs, providing therapy within the scope of an educational psychologist, and equipping faculty, residential staff and parents to respond early and well.

Psychological and psychoeducational assessment

• Assess students referred for learning, attention, emotional or behavioural concerns, using observation, interviews, consultation with faculty and boarding staff, informal measures and standardised psychometric tests.
• Select tools that are valid for a pan-African student body, and interpret results with care where a test’s norms do not fit a student’s language or schooling background.
• Conduct assessments for examination access arrangements to the evidence standards set by Cambridge International and other relevant bodies.
• Write clear reports and give feedback to students, parents and faculty within an agreed turnaround time.

Therapeutic support and crisis response

• Provide short- and medium-term individual and group therapy for emotional, behavioural, adjustment, relationship and learning-related difficulties, using evidence-based approaches and working within the scope of an educational psychologist and the limits of personal competence.
• Lead or support the psychological response to crises, grief and trauma affecting students, families or the school, including risk assessment and safety planning.
• Recognise when a student needs psychiatric, clinical psychology or hospital care, refer promptly through ALA’s referral network, and plan the student’s return to class and residence.
• Keep accurate, contemporaneous clinical records of all interventions.

Consultation and multidisciplinary support

• Work with the Head of Student Wellbeing, the counselling team, Year Heads, faculty advisors, Hall Heads, the clinic and the Deans to plan support for students of concern, and make case recommendations to the Head of Student Wellbeing and the Deans.
• Lead the psychological input into individual education plans and classroom accommodations, and help faculty apply them.
• Communicate with parents and guardians, many of whom live outside South Africa, in a structured, timely, and culturally sensitive way, sharing information only with consent or where safeguarding or the law requires it.

Prevention, psychoeducation and Wellness teaching

• Design and deliver preventive and developmental programmes that build students’ emotional skills and willingness to seek help, including group screening where agreed and workshops on topics such as stress, sleep, adjusting to boarding, relationships and study skills.
• Teach two Wellness classes, managing the boundary between the roles of teacher and therapist.
• Run training for faculty, residential faculty and parents so that the adults around students recognise early warning signs and know how to refer.

• Report suspected abuse or deliberate neglect as required by section 110 of the Children’s Act, through ALA’s safeguarding procedures and the Designated Safeguarding Lead.
• Balance student confidentiality with the school’s duty of care by following ALA’s information-sharing protocol: share what pastoral and boarding staff need to keep a student safe, and no more.
• Process health information lawfully under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), store records securely, and keep them for the periods set by HPCSA guidelines and ALA policy.
• Provide anonymised caseload and outcome data for Student Wellbeing reporting.

• Attend ALA-provided professional supervision; keep HPCSA registration current and meet CPD requirements (30 continuing education units every 12 months, including 5 in ethics, human rights or health law).
• Help develop the wellbeing service, its policies and its external referral network. Where eligible, and if ALA hosts intern psychologists, supervise and mentor intern educational psychologists.
• Carry out other reasonable duties, within professional scope, assigned by the Head of Student Wellbeing.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS AND SELECTION CRITERIA

Required Education and Experience: 

• Master’s degree in Educational Psychology.
• Current registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as an Educational Psychologist in the independent practice category.
• At least two years’ post-registration experience working with adolescents.
• Demonstrated experience in psychoeducational and psychometric assessment, including assessments for examination concessions or access arrangements.
• Up-to-date continuing professional development (CPD) record.
  

These strengthen an application but are not essential.

• Experience working in a school, ideally a boarding school.
• Experience with culturally and linguistically diverse or international students.
• Experience with Cambridge International access arrangements.
• Registered as a psychologist for more than three years, and therefore eligible under HPCSA rules to supervise and mentor intern educational psychologists.
• Further training in evidence-based approaches for adolescents (e.g. cognitive behavioural therapy, trauma-focused or grief work).
• Working knowledge of a language widely spoken by ALA students in addition to English (like French, Portuguese or Arabic).

COMPETENCIES: 

Technical competencies: 

• Psychoeducational and psychometric assessment of adolescents, including choosing tools that are fair for the student’s language and schooling background.
• Evidence-based individual and group therapy with adolescents.
• Crisis, grief and trauma response, including risk assessment and safety planning.
• Clear report writing for students, parents, faculty and examination bodies.
• Individual education plans (IEPs) developed with multidisciplinary teams.
• Facilitating psychoeducational workshops for students, staff and parents.
  

• Domain expertise: grows rapidly; solves problems and analyses evidence.
• Project management: well organised; manages a caseload with attention to detail and delivers on agreed timelines.
• Human capital management: works effectively in departmental and cross-functional teams.
• Relationship management: communicates ALA’s mission and model clearly to parents and external professionals.
• Strategic management: links own work to ALA’s student wellbeing priorities and proposes goals connected to them.
• Safeguarding: maintains professionally boundaried relationships and reports concerns accurately and promptly.

• Compassion: warm, patient and non-judgemental with young people far from home.
• Integrity: keeps confidences and knows when the law or a student’s safety requires sharing.
• Diversity: culturally humble and curious about students’ contexts across Africa.
• Excellence: high professional and ethical standards; uses evidence.
• Humility: seeks supervision and refers on when a case is beyond scope or competence.
• Curiosity: keeps learning and improves the service from feedback and data.

Report to: Head of Student Wellbeing
Job Location: ALA Campus, Honeydew, Johannesburg
Start date: 01 January 2027