Avondale School seeks to provide a supportive, nurturing, Christian environment for students, staff and families. The school is intentional in providing programs and opportunities to develop each student holistically, including counselling. We recognise that effective learning will not occur unless each student has a strong sense of identity and wellbeing on which to build their knowledge.
In an effort to achieve this goal, parents/guardians or school staff may refer students for counselling, or students may request counselling. There is no cost for counselling services provided at Avondale school.
Services may include intake assessment, short-term individual counselling (up to 6 sessions), crisis intervention, psycho-education groups, and external referrals as needed. Our School Counsellors offer short term support. Ongoing issues requiring further therapy would generally be referred to external specialists. The School Counsellors will discuss the benefit of linkage to external providers should the need arise.
Our School Counsellors may provide support for issues including:
Students can be referred either by parents or by a teacher or other staff member. Parents can make referrals via their child’s class teacher or by contacting the primary office. Primary students require the consent of a parent/guardian. Once a referral has been made, a consent form will be sent home for parents to sign and return to the primary office. As part of the referral process, either the Assistant Head of School, or one of the School Counsellors will contact a parent to organise a brief in-take interview.
At times the school counsellors are required to prioritise student needs where health or safety is compromised. This can at times result in some student appointments needing to be rescheduled in order to meet immediate need. We thank you for your understanding in these situations.
In order to build trust with the child, the school counsellor will keep information confidential, with some possible exceptions.
The counsellor is required by law to share information in certain circumstances such as:
The counsellor will make the child aware of these limits of confidentiality and will usually inform the child when sharing information with others.
The School Counsellors are mandatory reporters under Child Protection legislation. As mandatory reporters the School Counsellors are obligated to make a report to the Department of Communities and Justice should they know or suspect that a child or young person is at risk of significant harm.
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