Understanding what is school guidance and counselling

We look for the necessary information in order to answer the seven questions of the webquest. That were our answers:

1. What is school guidance counselling? Are guidance and counselling synonyms? Develop a personal definition.

A service given from the school to the educative community (students, teachers, family…) in order to provide help, advice and support.

They are not synonyms, while guidance could be understood as a wider concept consisting in giving advice to the educative community, counselling is a professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods. Even though they are separate activities, in practice they often overlap.

For example, if a student's behavior is interfering with his or her achievement, the school counselor may observe that student in a class, provide consultation to teachers and other stakeholders to develop (with the student) a plan to address the behavioral issue(s), and then collaborate to implement and evaluate the plan.

A school counsellor is a counsellor and an educator who works at every stage where there is a teaching-learning process to provide academic, career, college access, and personal/social competencies. The interventions used include developmental school counselling curriculum lessons and annual planning for every student, and group and individual counselling.

                                     

2.What are its functions and its main areas?

If you work as an elementary school guidance counsellor, your job duties might include observing children and relaying their unique needs and strengths to teachers and parents. If you work as a secondary school guidance counsellor, you typically work with students on a one-on-one basis, helping them to set goals for themselves or to resolve personal or behavioural problems. You might also provide special services to at-risk students suffering from drug addiction, behavioral disorders or domestic abuse.

There are 4 main elements:

1. Counseling: Counseling assistance supports and facilitates all students in developing and managing their individual personal/social, educational, and career goals and plans. The activities in this component include referrals, peer helping programs and individual, small group, crisis, and career counseling.
2. Prevention: early intervention and responding to students who are experiencing immediate on-going problems, concerns, or crises which interfere with their learning. This component includes activities such as providing information, individual and small group counseling and guidance, consulting with staff and parents, and referral to other specialists or services
3. Developmental guidance education and consultation: focuses on competencies which all students should develop in order to achieve personal success and fulfillment, and to make a contribution to society. Includes expected student learning outcomes in three areas: personal/social development, educational development, and career development. This content is normally delivered through classroom teaching/learning units, group guidance methods, courses for credit and school-wide programs and projects.
4. Planning and coordination: the administrative and management activities necessary to support the guidance and counseling program, as well as activities or services provided by school counselors to support other guidance and educational programs of the school. Includes consultation and collaboration with parents and community agencies and other support services, staff development, research, budgeting, community relations, and program evaluation.

Aims of group guidance and counseling include:

• to provide a means of sharing information on topics such 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 learn personal management and social skills such coping with feelings, dealing with peer pressure, goal-setting, problem-solving, and communication skills

They also provide consultation services to family members such as college access, career development, parenting skills, study skills, child and adolescent development, and help with school-home transitions

• Support teachers by providing them with tools and advice in order to be able to recognize and deal with a problem. 

                               

 3. Who receives the school guidance and counselling services?
School Guidance Counsellors can be found working in a variety of school settings. These may include elementary schools, middle schools, junior highs, secondary schools or post secondary schools. This can be done individually or in a classroom setting. 

4. What services are provided in the school guidance and counselling programmes?

School counseling programs help to close achievement and opportunity gaps ensuring all students have access to school counseling programs and early college access activities.

Transitions from pre-school to elementary school and from elementary school to middle school, from middle school to high school and from high school to university (university orientation), relations among family and school, studying methods, study methods , child abuse, sexuality, drugs....

Some programs from the Australian page.

A) Program Caring School Community

The Caring School Community (CSC) program focuses on building a supportive school community based on caring relationships among students, between students and teachers, and between schools and families.

B)ABCD Parenting  Adolescents

The ABCD program offers strategies and ideas to help you learn new skills and build confidence in raising your adolescent. All ABCD information is designed to help you understand your own approach to parenting and to come up with solutions to any particular problems you are facing.

C) Families and Schools together (FAST)

The overall goal of FAST is to build resiliency and protective factors in children.

D) Social Anxiety Disorder Recovery Program
A skills based program for people experiencing social anxiety disorder as a primary condition. The program is aimed at supporting participants to gain knowledge, skills and strategies to assist recovery from social anxiety disorder.

5. Who provides these services?
In some countries, school counseling is provided by educational specialists (for example, Botswana, China, Finland, Israel, Malta, Nigeria, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey, United States). In other cases, school counseling is provided by classroom teachers who either have such duties added to their typical teaching load or teach only a limited load that also includes school counseling activities (for example- India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Zambia)

6. When are the school guidance counselling services provided?
On a daily basis directly with students and school administrators or when a specific problem is identified and has to be treated in a deeper way.

7. Where are they provided?

This can be done individually or in a classroom setting.