Counselling and Mentoring

Counsellor/Mental Health Lead : Mrs Kim Calnan MBACP (Accred) UKCP Person Centred

Counselling is a way of helping people through talking and listening.

The client is encouraged to express their feelings and thoughts about their problems, so that they can understand themselves and their behaviour better. Counselling can offer student’s a dedicated space to discuss their personal worries and concerns. It can support them to explore their feelings in order to make decisions regarding the action they take to locate positive solutions. It can be a strategy that prevents deterioration in student’s emotional wellbeing, behaviour and attitude in order to support school and life success.

Good mental and emotional wellbeing is an integral part of a young person’s holistic development.

Confidentiality is an important issue in relation to counselling and enables the student to build a trusting relationship with the counsellor in order to share feelings and experiences without fear of reprisal. However it will be made clear to the student from the first meeting that if an issue is revealed that suggests that the young person is at risk of significant harm, then the right of confidentiality will be overridden to protect the student’s welfare and the schools Child Protection procedures would be adhered to.

Students can self-refer, or be referred for counselling by other professionals. The sessions are generally an hour long and are on a rotational basis so that the student doesn’t miss the same lesson each week.

The student is responsible for catching up on any work missed. There are also “Drop in” sessions over the lunch break. The number of sessions offered will be dependent on the purpose of the support.