We started edpsy in 2016 and we’re in our tenth year – hard for us to believe. In that time our professional context, alongside the national and global context has changed dramatically, and we’re changing too.
Connect. Share. Inspire.
For most of this year we’ve undertaken a big re-design project – you can see the visible outcome of that here, on the site (please do have a look around). A bolder, more dynamic and vibrant look. This work has also meant us reflecting back on 9 years of work to consider where we came from, and importantly, where we’re going.
Our core values from the get go were Community, Creativity, Engagement and Sustainability. We’re not letting these go – they still absolutely underpin everything we do.
What we are doing is reorienting to the values articulated just above. Our purpose is to connect, share and inspire.
Over the course of this year we’ve gathered evaluative information from, quite literally, hundreds of you. We’ve learnt a lot, had much to reflect on, and much to celebrate. What came through loud and clear though was an incredibly strong sense that the edpsy community (which includes all of you) is welcoming, inspiring, uplifting, energising and vibrant.
Our old look and feel needed a refresh to mark the start of our next decade.
A huge thank you to Rich who has spent hundreds of hours redesigning the site and bringing our new design to life. Rich isn’t an EP and yet has worked for months, often in evenings and on weekends, voluntarily (!) to get this project done.
Your hub for educational psychology
Our vision now is to be your hub for educational psychology. The keystone to this vision is collaboration – it’s absolutely not something we think can just ‘be achieved’ through working in a silo.
Being your hub for educational psychology means lasting and effective relationships with the whole EP community. If we don’t do something, we’ll signpost you to the group or organisation that can. If another interest group or professional collective is better placed to support you, then we’ll help as much as we can to connect you with them.
Alongside that community building, we’ll strive to be the community space, voice and resource that hundreds of you said that we are. This means a bit of a psychological shift for us (well…certainly me!). It means stepping in to our space, boldly. One of my key reflections throughout this process has been how tentative and cautious we’ve often been when launching new projects or pursuing new ideas, just incase we upset someone.
Working within this community for nearly ten years, meeting hundreds of you, hearing from undergrads through to Principal EPs… it’s provided the courage to proudly own what we do and how we do it.
What’s to come
Alongside everything we already offer, we’re going to:
- Launch a community fund to support grassroots ideas and projects.
- Get our TEP community group up and running so that we can better understand how we can meet TEP needs.
- Launch our community awards to celebrate the inspiring work you do
- Develop an infrastructure to support our community to respond to government consultations
- Continue to develop our highly successful ‘edpsy hosts’ CPD webinars
- Host an in-person event
- Host our next edpsy festival of educational psychology in 2027
- Start the groundwork for a thriving membership offer above and beyond everything you already have access to
It’s a lot, but how exciting!
A bit of fun history about our re-brand
When we worked with the design agency who supported with our rebrand, they had access to a summary of the words people used about edpsy. Some of the most common words were ‘psychological’, ‘effective’, ‘resourceful’, ‘forward-thinking’.
We were also very clear with the design team that we wanted to be bolder and build on our strengths.
The design team went away and were inspired by a collection of retro psychology text books in the Swiss design style – you can see examples of this below.
This visual connection to our shared professional history – the history of psychology – alongside the visually striking and playful feel just felt perfect.
Here’s to the next ten years! Keep your eyes peeled for some of these exciting developments soon.
