Counselling at Waverley College

Who is the school counsellor?

Waverley College recognises that many things can impact on a student's performance and prevent him from being happy and achieving his best in school and in life. The School Counsellor deals with the social and emotional well being of students at Waverley College.

The School Counsellor is Ms Anne Bateman.

Contacting the school counsellor?

The school counsellor is available any day of the week during school hours.
One day a fortnight is spent at the Junior School.

What does the school counsellor do?

The school counsellor is available to talk with students about any aspect of their lives that is affecting them (and therefore is, directly or by default, affecting their school performance). This includes,

* school issues (eg school performance, motivation, goals, and study practices)
* behavioural issues (at school or home)
* emotional issues (eg depression, anxiety, anger, loss and grief)
* relationship issues (eg social isolation, peer and opposite sex relationships)
* family issues (eg conflict with parent or sibling, unhappiness at home, family breakdown)

The school counsellor is available to talk with parents about such things as,

* concerns they have for their child
* difficulties they are having at home
* parenting an adolescent

Finally, the school counsellor spends time talking with teachers in assisting them understand and/or deal with student's behaviours and needs.

Other services?

The school counsellor provides a variety of regular groupwork programs. These include groups in both the Junior and Senior School for students experiencing severe anxiety, Behaviour Support, a Bully Support Programme, and a programme to support students who get bullied.

The counsellor also creates and facilitates groupwork programs in response to special needs as they arise.

Is it confidential?

Counselling is a confidential process.

However, sometimes it may be deemed appropriate to talk with others,
a) in the school system - this is a "team" approach to confidentiality where those working with a student work together to improve his school experience and performance. Therefore information may be shared with, for example, a teacher or Year Master. This occurs after discussion with and approval from the student involved.
b) in clinical supervision - this is profession supervision of the counselor. It is a process of talking about the work of the counsellor and aims toward the latter providing the best possible intervention for the student.

There are instances where the counselor is, by law, bound to share information with others even without their consent. According to the Children and Young Persons (care and Protection) Act 1998 a counsellor has a mandatory reporting responsibility where there are reasonable grounds to believe that,

* they are at risk
* a serious crime has been committed
* there is serious risk of harm to self or others or where
* there has been a subpoena served to present documents to Court
* there has been a formal complaint that requires investigation