Newsletter Term 1 Week 9
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
I hope that you have all enjoyed the Easter break. Thank you to all of the parents and friends who came to the school last Thursday and helped us celebrate Easter with our annual hat parade. It was great to see so many parents and grand parents here to support our students on the day. I know that the sausage sizzle lunch went very well and at the same time raised valuable funds for our hard working P&C. Congratulations to the winners in our Easter raffle. I am sure that the prizes will be enjoyed by those who won.
The Role of the School Counsellor
The school is allocated one and a quarter days per week counsellor time, however this time can also include training and meetings outside the school. Melissa Cameron, our counsellor, has qualifications and experience in both education and psychology and her role is to provide psychological support to the school. This includes:
• Assessment of students’ ability and behaviour, and compiling reports about these assessments.
• Advising staff and parents on the management of students and their specific needs.
• Participation in and advice to meetings about whole school issues and specific students’ needs.
• Assisting in the application for support, resources and class placement for students with special needs.
• Referring students or families to agencies concerned with the health and welfare of students and liaising with these agencies.
• Providing reports and recommendations when students have received long suspensions (5-20 days).
• Providing therapy and counselling to students - individually and in groups.
It is important to discuss any issues relating to your child’s academic, social and emotional progress with their class teacher before contacting the School Counsellor, as most referrals come through the Learning Support Team. This team meets weekly to determine the level and type of support and intervention students require. It may be more appropriate to seek help from an agency outside school if the issues are not related to school. I have included a list of agencies which may be able to provide assistance:
AGENCIES Phone
Anglicare 44231018
Centrecare 44218248
Family Support 44215499
Mission Counselling 44220455
Aboriginal Medical Service 44286666
Nowra Community Health Centre 44228111
Or consult your Local GP
Collecting Students from School
From time to time parents collect their children from school early. This is usually to attend an appointment or for some other special circumstance. When this occurs parents are required to sign the student out at the office. Sometimes another family member or friend will be asked to collect a child. In these circumstances the school needs to be sure that the person collecting the child has the authority to do so. This can be confirmed by checking the student’s emergency card to that the person collecting the child has such authority or by the parent proving a note giving the person authority to collect the child.
The school is unable to prevent a parent from taking a student from school except where a court order has been supplied to the school prohibiting the parent from doing so. It is important to realise that the school MUST have a copy of the court order to enforce it.
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