Description

The School Psychologist delivers a planned and coordinated program of psychological services including the integration of schoolwide counseling and learning specialist services. They collaborate closely with principals, faculty, and parents to support the success of students (academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally) and ensure that students along the entire continuum of learning capabilities receive equitable access to the curriculum, appropriate instruction, support and services.  The School Psychologist assists in the identication of needs, ongoing services and monitoring required for Tier 3 support plans. This requires consulting and collaborating effectively with various constituent groups (e.g. learning specialists, counselors, faculty, parents, and administrators) regarding students with identied learning needs and/or behavior concerns. The School Psychologist collaborates closely with the Student Services Director to implement Child Protection and Safeguarding policies and procedures and serves as the lead safeguarding officer during crisis intervention. This position requires frequent contact and collaboration with multiple levels of the school’s constituencies, including the Student Services Director, Associate Head of School, Lower and Upper Primary principals, teachers, counselors, and families and parent groups.

KEY AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY:-

Consultation:

• Participate in Student Services meetings (e.g. Student Review Teams, Principal/Learning Specialist/Parent meetings) with parents and colleagues as appropriate and/or when requested in order to assist in facilitating appropriate programs and services for individual students.
• Serve as a consultant/resource to faculty and administrators regarding the implementation of appropriate instructional interventions, monitoring of students’ progress, discipline and behavioral issues; this includes observing students in their classroom environment.
• Serve as the lead safeguarding officer during crisis intervention and child protection situations.
• Provide consultation to teachers, parents and administrators around signicant student learning and mental health issues.
• Provide counselling, instruction and mentoring to those students struggling with social, emotional, and behavioral problems.
• Assist with the referral process and interpretation of psycho-educational assessments from third parties to determine the appropriate intervention strategies.
• Consult with the Admissions team and Lower and Upper Primary Administration on challenging and complex admissions decisions.
• Support teachers in developing differentiated instructional strategies and behavior management practices for students of varying abilities who share a common classroom setting.
• Develop faculty’s capacity for instructional strategies specic to students with learning needs.

Child Safeguarding and Risk Assessments:

• Collaborate with the Student Services Director and school-wide leadership to ensure there is consistent implementation of HKIS’s Safeguarding policy and child protection procedures.
• Collaborate with schoolwide counsellors and divisional administration to determine a consistent approach to Risk Assessment procedures (i.e., harm to self or others).
• Provide professional development for counselors, faculty and administrators on Child Safeguarding and Risk Assessment procedures.

Professional Development and Adult Education:

• Provide in-service training and workshops to ensure faculty and administrators are knowledgeable about best practices in the area of child safeguarding, special education and learning support services; e.g. on-going child protection training, responding to crises, options for providing support within and outside of the classroom, how to best match the support with the individual child’s learning needs, intervention strategies.
• Develop faculty’s capacity for instructional strategies specic to students with learning needs.
• Coordinate professional development for learning specialists aligned with best practice in relevant areas; e.g. self-regulation, social communication.
• Develop Learning Support teachers' skills to differentiate behavior  management practices for students of varying abilities who share a common classroom setting.
• Promote wellness and resilience by reinforcing communication and social skills, problem solving, self-regulation (including anger management), self-determination, and optimism.

Delivery of Services:

• Collaborate with the learning specialists in the ongoing development of appropriate service delivery models (intervention strategies, progress monitoring, and specialized assessment tools) to develop processes and practices for students receiving learning support services.
• Assist counselors in the development of behavioral intervention plans and protocols for seeking external support.
• Develop and implement new programs in collaboration with the counseling teams on broader student support issues (e.g. parenting classes, embedding socio-emotional learning into classrooms) to create safe, healthy and supportive learning environments.

Special Projects and Other:

• Provide outreach and support to parents in order to promote a positive school/family relationship and enhance student learning.
• Act as liaison to and develop long-term relationships with relevant community mental health and academic support service providers (e.g. FOCUS on Children, Dyslexia Association).
• Undertake other duties and functions as required that will impact and strengthen the contributions of the department and overall operations of the school.

Requirements

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS:-

Education and Certification:

•  Advanced degree, preferably a PHD in School or Clinical Psychology or related eld.
• Current certication as a School Psychologist

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years experience as a School Psychologist; experience in K-5 preferred.
• Demonstrated experience in the administration and interpretation of comprehensive psycho-educational assessments and evaluations.
• Demonstrated experience in the assessment of learning, behavioral, social and emotional needs.
• Demonstrated experience in developing remedial strategies and accommodations for students with mild to moderate learning needs.

Skills :

• Demonstrated knowledge and skills in child/adolescent development and behavior, behavior management techniques, behavioral intervention and instructional practices, intercultural communications and interactional styles.
• Demonstrated ability to administer, synthesize and interpret comprehensive psycho-educational assessments.
• Ability to provide expertise and serve as an expert in psychotherapy; behaviorial intervention, emotional and mental issues.
• Demonstrated ethical behavior and confidentiality of information about students in the school environment and community.
• Ability to effectively communicate (written and verbal), consult and collaborate with principals, parents and community members.
• Demonstrated ability to prepare and present comprehensive and effective reports, both oral and written, as appropriate to varied audiences.
• Excellent organizational skills; ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Excellent collaboration and interpersonal skills including persuasion skills.
• Demonstrated effectiveness in working with students and families from diverse racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds.
• Demonstrated ability to develop, implement, and evaluate programs and services that serve HKIS students.
• Demonstrated continued professional curiosity and growth.
• Ability to perform under stress, deal with persons acting under stress and displaying emotional distress and adapt when confronted with emergency situations.
• As a school grounded in the Christian faith, we hire Christian teachers and administrators as well as those of other faiths. HKIS seeks to hire candidates who are interested in the complex questions of faith and spirituality and who are keen to learn and interact with others of different faith traditions.

We invite you to learn more about our school and discover for yourself career opportunities in our remarkable HKIS community at https://www.hkis.edu.hk/

We look forward to hearing from you!