1. School guidance and counselling
What is school guidance and counselling?
School guidance and counselling is an educational approach within
professional organizations that support psychologist practicing in
education.
Its main roles are to improve child's educational achievements and to
prevent or reduce bad behaviours by taking into account their personal
development and situation.
Difference between guidance and counselling:
Guidance involves listening carefully to the problems of individuals and
discussing possible solutions that can help, solve and alleviate these
problems. In this way the person who is in dilemma can choose whether or
not to accept the said solution and carry it out.
Counselling involves a series of talking and listening, discussing the problem
at hand and sharing relevant information that could help the person
understand the problem and make his or her own decision or course of
action.
Therefore, while guidance is a way of providing solutions, counselling
has more to do with providing advices in order that the person in
troubles can solve his or her problems by their own.

2. What are its functions?
1. Counselling assistance to support and facilitate all students in developing
and managing their personal/social, educational and career goals and plans.
2. Prevention: intervention and responding to students who are
experiencing immediate on-going problems, concerns or crises which
interfere in their learning.
3. Developmental guidance education: helping students to develop
competences needed in order to achieve personal success and fulfilment,
and to make a contribution to society. It is focused on three areas, mainly:
personal/social development, educational development and career
development.
4. Consultation, planning and coordination involves the administrative and
management activities necessary to support the guidance and counselling
program, as well as activities or services provided by school counsellors to
support other guidance and educational programs of the school

3. What are its main areas?
Personal/social development:
-Students' identity and self-concept.
-Health and physical well-being: physical maturations, sexuality, fitness,
injury, disease, eating disorders, drugs consume...
-Interpersonal relationships, with emphasis on the students' relationships
with peers, adults within the family, and adults outside the family such as:
teachers and administrators.
Educational development:
-Academic and cognitive, focusing on learning in the classroom and other
educational contexts, with particular attention to individual students'
needs, abilities, and approach to the learning situations.
Career development:
Career and leisure, which involve the exploration and broadening of the
students' options in planning such career and leisure activities as locating
occupational information, interviewing for a job and finding recreational
facilities.
OUR SERVICES
Exceptional Learning Needs and Students At-Risk
Comprehensive guidance and counselling programs and services are
inclusive. They are intended to help all students realize their full potential
regardless of physical, social, emotional and other challenges. The function
of school counsellors with students who have exceptional learning needs
may include:
- Providing specific curriculum-related programs to strengthen personal
and interpersonal skills such as problem-solving, decision-making,
understanding feelings and self-acceptance.
- Providing referrals for additional specialized support services and
mediating and facilitating effective behaviour change.
-Providing social skills training individually and in small groups.

4. - Providing career planning.
- Assisting in the completion of funding applications.
- Working as a team member with other support professionals, making
referrals to appropriate specialists.
- Providing in-service support presentations to staff, promoting workshops
for staff and students on various disorders affecting school success
- Supporting parents and families, serving as a consultant and resource to
guide them.
Peer Helping
Peer helping programs enhance the effectiveness of the comprehensive
guidance and counselling program by expanding services.
Peer helpers receive training in communication and helping skills to assist
with one-to-one helping relationships.
The peer helpers can then help provide services such as:
- welcoming new students
- tutoring in academic areas or as career information coordinators.
- peer mediation and conflict resolution helpers
-leadership/cross-age group
- community and volunteer services
- alerting counsellors to serious problems

5. - helping students-at-risk or with exceptional learning needs
- peer helper trainers.
Group Work
Group guidance and group counselling are effective means of responding to
the varying needs of students, t o deal with problems and issues in
educational, career and personal/social areas.
Group guidance or group work in the classroom is typically used to address
developmental needs and to implement preventative programs.
It is informational and instructional in nature. That´s why e thically, group
counselling requires the counsellor to have specific training.
Aims of group guidance and counselling include:
- to provide a means of sharing information on topicssuch as career
information and study skills
- to help students develop skills for programs such as conflict
management, peer helping, and peer tutoring
- to help students develop knowledge and learnpersonal management and
social skills such coping with feelings, dealing with peer pressure, goal-
setting, problem-solving, and communication skills.
Students´s Portfolios
School counsellors play an important role on the school team in the
development of student portfolios.
They can be used:
- To give feedback on individual students performance.
- To obtain concrete evidence for evaluation of learning which can support
reports to parents.

6. - To facilitate a student´s transition to the world of work or to further
learning (it can be also useful to provide this informayion to future student
´s teachers).
come on! we can do it!!!
SPECIAL PROGRAMMES
Stop bullying!
Create bullying awareness in your school and community
Invite students, classroom teachers and school staff to work together to
promote safe school climates.
Avoiding any type of bullying:
-Verbal bullying: refers to actions such as insults or racial comments.
-Social bullying: refers to actions such as gossiping, spreading rumours and
ignoring or excluding others. ..
- Physical bullying: through aggressive actions.
The classroom activities contained in this package highlight the issue of
bullying in order to encourage empathy for those affected by bullying and
to empower others to recognize the hurt and damage caused by all forms
of bullying.

7. Towards inclusion
The intention is to provide additional classroom management strategies in
order to create and maintain a predictable learning environment in which
students and teachers enjoy positive relationships, students are ready to
learn, and teachers are able to teach.
For example encouraging positive relationships or with Social skills
instructions, in order to increase success rates and reduce negative
behaviour.
Consultants for the Blind and Visually Impaired
The services are based on a student’s specific visual needs , so they are
determinated by the consultants through observations, assessments and
by talking with parents and the student support team.
The consultants also teach specialized skillsin: sensory development, braille
literacy, concept development, orientation and mobility, effective use of
residual vision, assistive technology, keyboarding and handwriting
skills, effective use of learning and listening skills, daily living skills...
They carry out adaptations for learning activities in the classroom,
gymnasium, on the playground, at home and in the community when
appropriate and special equipment may be needed to support a
student’s learning (ex: braille writer, closed-circuit television magnification
system, computer access devices)

8. Who receives our services?
Counseling and guidance services are focused on STUDENTS of
elementary, middle, high schools, and even adult education.
Comprehensive guidance and counselling programs and services support
student learning in areas of personal/social, educational and career
development.
Our more common “customers” are students with emotional and behavioural
difficulties. Usually pupils with issues at home (parental apathy, substance
abuse, poverty, marital breakdown…)
But these problems not only concern to the children, and that’s why the
counsellors also provide services to TEACHERS and PARENTS, as
consultants to help them in dealing with the situation.
Who provides these services?
School psychologists are professionals involved in various forms of
interventions in order to help promote development, to acquire and best
utilize personal, school, family, and community resources, and to minimize
difficulties and disorders.
Guidance officers are people can help you with a wide range of educational
issues as well as offering specialist information and support, for example,
they play a vital role in providing information and advice to students about
their future study options.

9. A school counsellor is a counsellor and an educator who works in
elementary, middle, and high schools to provide academic, career, college
access, and personal/social competencies to students.
School divisions should ensure that persons fulfilling the role of school
counsellor are adequately trained. It is recommended that school
counsellors should have completed a 30-hour degree program in school
counselling, including supervised practice in guidance counselling.
* Support Teachers in primary schools
* Guidance counsellors in second level schools
* Guidance practitioners in third level education
* Guidance practitioners working with adults in education
* Guidance practitioners working in Youth reach and similar programmes.
When is guidance and counselling providing?
Guidance and counselling is provided when people with mental health
problems are identified. Normally they present the attitudes bellow:
Apathy, substance abuse, poverty to marital breakdown, feelings of loss
and abandonment, difficulties in controlling and expressing feelings
especially anger, low self esteem and general lack of social skills. Their
educational attainment is also affected due to lack of familial support, lack
of motivation, poor attitude, absenteeism and dropout, and consequently a
low standard of core literacy and numeracy skills.

10. HOW CAN WE IDENTIFY A PERSON WHO NEEDS
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT?
1. Teacher observations: Teachers are crucial to the success
of interventions in schools and have a good knowledge of
students. In this first phase, teachers raise any concerns they have had
with students with a chaired panel of multi-disciplinary specialists.
2. School support team contribute and then collate all information:
Without compromising confidentiality, welfare personnel such as the school
counsellor, nurse and youth worker nominate students not yet identified
and with whom they have worked and who are in need. In this second phase
further students can be added.
3. The student self-report: As adolescents have been found to be able to
accurately report both their depression and anxiety, the self-report
instruments are an important procedure.
Where is guidance and counselling provided?
They are provided in:
- Primary Schools
-High schools
-Degrees and post degrees.
-They are also provided by different kind of programmes and via internet.
PERSONAL GUIDANCE
Guidance at primary level
Main functions:
Support for the Transition from Primary to Post Primary.
Many children need support in their transition from primary to post
primary schooling.
In order to help them in this big step it is necessary the creation
of support models, result of the collaboration between primary and post
primary levels in schools
Career Related Learning in Primary Schools.
Career-related learning helps children to understand the world of work.

11. Recent invastigations are determining the need to include career-related
learning in the primary curriculum. This innovation will have many benefits
for children, as the help in children's self development, and in their
preparation for the adult working life.
Guidance in Post Primary Schools
Guidance is a universal entitlement in post primary schools. Each school is
granted an additional teaching resource by the Department of Education
and Skills for guidance purposes.
The Whole School Guidance Planning.
This Programme includes guidance counsellors working in post primary
schools with the knowledge and skills that are required to undertake the
guidance planning process, rather than providing schools with a generic
guidance plan. This takes into account the uniqueness of each school and
the context in which the guidance counsellor acts.
Guidance in Higher Education
All of the Universities and most of the Institutes of Technology (IoT)
offer a careers service to students. This carrer education has been
provided mostly for final year students and recent graduates. However,
some universities have started to provide this help to undergraduated
courses. The Careers Advisory/Appointments Office provides information
on educational and employment opportunities to students and
graduates. Students can meet with a Careers Adviser for educational and
career guidance.
Adult Educational Guidance Initiative (AEGI)
The AEGI offers a guidance service to adults which includes impartial adult
education information, one-to-one guidance and group guidance, which
willhelp people to make informed educational, career and life choices.
COUNSELLING VIA INTERNET
The online counselling has alredy being used. The idea of providing
counselling services via the internet is becoming a more accepted mode of
support. Nowadays, if we search in the net, we will find many organisations
that provide the help for guidance needers .
Normally, people who try to contact a counsellor via internet are more
needed of help

12. Kids Help Line provides web counselling to supplement their national
telephone counselling service. Benefits of providing online counselling
through the school website:
• The school counsellor has knowledge of the local community & how
services can be accessed
• The school counsellor is identifiable to students and is thereby not
seen as a total stranger
• The service can provide students with a sense of anonymity through a
‘one step removed’ effect
• Students tend to perceive the counselling relationship as a more
balanced interaction thereby being more conducive for student use.