The School Counsellors are experienced teachers with postgraduate training in school counselling. They strengthen schools' student welfare provisions and provide counselling and psychological assessment of students with special needs. They collaborate with teachers in classrooms to improve student learning outcomes. School counsellors work with students, parents or carers and teachers in a variety of ways.
Counselling support can be accessed through student self-referrals, the School Learning Support Team, parents/carers referrals and Principal or Deputy Principals' referrals.
School Counsellors -
Support Students by:
- providing a counselling service to students, individually and in groups.
- contributing to the assessment of students' needs to improve learning outcomes.
- assessing students' learning and behaviour
Support Teachers by:
- participating in the work of the School Learning Support Team and Student Welfare programs
- supporting schools in serious incident management.
- liaising with other agencies.
- providing support and recommendations regarding student suspensions.
- assisting schools to identify and address disabilities that affect students' learning
Support Parents/Carers by:
- assisting parents or carers to make informed decisions about their child's education.
School counselling staff are members of the school learning and support team.
A teacher may recommend the service by referring a student to the school’s learning and support team. As a parent or carer, you may refer your child directly to the school counselling service. Students can also self-refer to the service.
The school counselling service can:
- support students who are worrying about school work, friends, getting in trouble at school or feeling down
- help parents and carers make decisions about your child’s education
- assess a student’s learning and behaviour
- help teachers and students identify and address disabilities that may affect learning
- liaise with other agencies regarding student wellbeing.
School counselling is confidential.
For more information about learning and support teams and the school counselling service, please contact your school.