SCHOOL COUNSELLOR and WELLBEING SERVICES
Mount Annan High School offers a range of additional wellbeing support for all students, including the School Counselling Service, Student Support Officer, Chaplain and WHIN (Wellbeing Nurse).
Talk to your child’s Year Advisor for more information or to make a referral to these services. Alternatively, you can contact the school on 4648 0111.
School Counsellors
School counselling staff are members of the school learning and support team.
A teacher may recommend the service by referring a student to the school’s learning and support team. As a parent or carer, you may refer your child directly to the school counselling service. Students can also self-refer to the service.
The school counselling service can:
- support students who are worrying about schoolwork, friends, getting in trouble at school or feeling down
- help parents and carers make decisions about your child’s education
- assess a student’s learning and behaviour
- help teachers and students identify and address disabilities that may affect learning
- liaise with other agencies regarding student wellbeing.
All contact with the School Counselling Service is confidential.
The School Counsellors who visit our school are:
· Megan Roberts (Monday and Wednesday)
· Lyndal Drinnan (Tuesday and Thursday)
· Aimee Findlater (Friday)
The School Counsellors office is located in the Admin block, next to reception. Students may self-refer to the School Counsellor by completing the Self-Referral form located on the School Counsellors door.
To contact our school counsellor, students and parents are able to submit a referral through this google form:
For more information about learning and support teams and the school counselling service, visit:
- Disability, learning and support – roles and responsibilities
- Student wellbeing – counselling and psychology services.
Student Support Officer (SSO)
Student Support Officers support and respond to the wellbeing and overall social and emotional needs of all students as required. This is achieved through:
• 1-1 mentoring of students
• Triaging students to appropriate wellbeing support
• Advocating for students in disciplinary meetings
• Peer mediation
• OOHC review meeting
• Providing referral information to students and families for external supports and services.
All contact with the SSO is confidential.
Our SSO is Georgina Gilbert – Monday to Friday
The SSO office is located in the school library.
Students can self-refer to Georgina for additional support by completing a referral form which is located on the SSO office door.
Chaplain
The three roles of a School Chaplain in a public school are: providing much needed assistance to the wellbeing team in providing individualised wellbeing catch-up sessions with students, facilitating small group programs with an emphasis on social skills, confidence and emotional intelligence as well as nurturing relationships between our students and the broader community; including local charity fundraisers/food drives, community events/concerts, faith groups and community services, local youth sporting programs and community-based youth social programs.
Our School Chaplain is Bethany Succar – Monday, Thursday and Friday.
The Chaplain is located within the L&ST staff.
Students can self-refer to Bethany for additional support by completing a referral form which is located with the Head Teacher Wellbeing in the library.
Wellbeing and Health In-Reach Nurse (WHIN)
The role of the wellbeing nurse is to:
• Identify and address health and social needs of students and families
• Coordinate appropriate early intervention, assessments and referral of students and families to services and programs
• Contribute to care coordination and case management of students and families
• Build trusting relationships with students and families to identify and assess their health and social needs and address barriers to accessing services
• Support access to health promotion to improve health literacy and engagement of students and families
• Develop networks with health providers to build strong relationships and effective referral pathways.
Our WHIN is Carolyn James, who attends our school on Wednesday.
Referrals to our Wellbeing Nurse are completed by the Learning and Support Team.