School Counselling

School Counselling Service
COUI will recruit, orientate, manage and supervise the counsellors placed in the school.

We would generally recommend two counsellors are placed per school, each offering a day of five or six counselling sessions.
Counselling sessions usually lasts for one period so as not to disrupt classes, and the counsellors will work with each child to ensure that they rotate their session times in order to minimise disruption to any particular subject.

A counsellor will be responsible for liaising with the school around student referrals, and any child protection issues that might emerge. COUI are keen to promote good communication between counsellors and school staff so that there is a mutually beneficial information sharing loop that increases understanding of a particular child's circumstances and needs.
COUI will provide Enhanced Criminal Record Bureau checks for each counsellor.

Some of the issues that the young people have been supported through include:

  • Bullying
  • Conflicts at home
  • Being young carers at home
  • Depression
  • Self-harm
  • Eating disorders
  • Aggressive behaviour at school
  • Excluding themselves from school
  • Poor performance at school
  • Low self-image and life goals
  • Anger management
  • Cultural challenges and inability to integrate successfully
  • Struggles with abuse and neglect
  • Inability to communicate
  • Struggles with sexual identity

Parental Involvement

COUI will negotiate with each school in what way client and parental consent is gained.
Should a parent wish to be involved in their child's counselling, they are welcome to meet with the counsellor to discuss their child's situation (taking in to account the client-counsellor confidentiality agreement), occasionally it may be beneficial for the counsellor to offer a session with child and parent where communication problems would benefit from a mediating intervention.

Potential numbers of young people served

Two counsellors, offering two days of counselling would provide up to 200 sessions of counselling per academic year.

Please click here to download the flyer.

Peer Mentoring with Teens & Toddlers Graduates

This programme enables young people, who have completed Teens & Toddlers, to develop personal and social skills that are practically applicable to the school environment and their future employment. COUI UK facilitators and counsellors are uniquely placed to offer peer mentoring, as they possess the necessary psychological skills to support students in developing the capacity to support each other.

COUI UK will support the school to recruit and induct young mentors. The four training sessions will include: -

  • What is mentoring, confidentiality, boundaries, goal setting
  • Conflict resolution, mediation, communication
  • Reading body language, non-verbal communication, role play
  • Coaching skills, see and say, blind spots, journals
    Some benefits for the teen mentors:
  • Leadership skills
  • Service to their community
  • Increased self esteem and aspiration
  • Capacity to be a positive role model
  • Ability to mediate conflict

Benefits for those who are mentored:

  • Bullying
  • Conflicts at home
  • Depression
  • Aggressive behaviour at school
  • Excluding themselves from school
  • Poor performance at school
  • Low self-image and life goals
  • Anger management
  • Cultural challenges and inability to integrate successfully
  • Inability to communicate

After receiving training the Young people are matched with a mentees, who will either self referred or be referred by school staff. COUI UK will hold monthly group supervisions and National Award assessments, this could include supervision with any school staff members wanting to support the mentoring programme.

The year long programme will end with an Awards Ceremony to acknowledge the achievement of both mentors and mentees. The most committed and inspired mentors will be eligible to participate in an international residential programme on leadership skills partnered with WYSE. (Link www.wyse-ngo.org)

Workforce Training on Personal Social Health Education and Sexual Relationship Education

A key element of successful teenage pregnancy prevention programmes is the strong delivery of PSHE and SRE in schools alongside workforce training on sex and relationship issues within mainstream partner agencies. COUI UK has developed expertise in training and delivery of PSHE and SRE that is engaging and meaningful to young people.
COUI UK can deliver PSHE and SRE for multi- agency groups, including school governors, social workers, foster parents, youth workers, Connexions PA's wanting to benefit from the unique approach we take to engaging young people.

In a COUI UK qualitative study that followed up young people who had undertaken the Teens and Toddlers programme in the past, results suggested: -

  • A high degree of dissatisfaction with school based and governmental approaches to sex education and pregnancy prevention.
  • Four consistent criticisms of the delivery of sexual education in schools: (1) material is too theoretical; (2) group sizes are too large; (3) teaching methods are disempowering and necessitate a passive approach in students; (4) the material itself is considered to be fear based and moralistic (e.g., showing graphic pictures of sexual infections).
  • Participants expressed a strong desire for the inclusion of material about relationships, feelings and the emotional variables associated with becoming pregnant in sexual education programmes.
  • The key features of Teens and Toddlers programmes that are valued by young people are a real life experience, practical knowledge and the opportunity to dialogue about the issues.
  • Main learning reported by participants about the Teens and Toddler experience:
  • Self expression - learning to discuss and express opinions, understanding issues from more than one point of view
  • Making choices - thinking about when to have a baby and what you want for yourself
  • Planning for the future - thinking about security, having a job before having a child
  • Responsibility - understanding the responsibility associated with becoming a parent
  • Anger management - learning positive ways to deal with difficult situations and feelings
  • Self esteem - becoming more aware of personal ways of dealing with things and feeling good about yourself - 'braving up'

Coming soon….14 -19 Personalised Learning
For more information on all of the above programmes, contact Sarah Hall-Craggs, Business Development Manager, at the COUI Office (0207 0896180 or scraggs@teensandtoddlers.org.uk)

More from Dods
Advertise

Spread your message to an audience that counts, with options available for our website, email bulletins and publications including The House Magazine.