Primary School Counselling

Education provides children with vital life skills and can help combat future unemployment and social disadvantage.

In 2011 Parentline established a counselling service in primary schools. The impetus for becoming involved in this work was driven by an increasing number of referrals from local schools to support children with challenging behaviours.

Currently the service operates in four Hamilton primary schools (Nawton, Whitiora, Frankton and St Columbas). An experienced and qualified Counsellor offers therapeutic interventions to individual children; she is at each school for one day every week. The service is acclaimed by teaching staff as being beneficial to both them and their pupils.

Based on this success Parentline is looking to expand the service into another four primary schools.

The benefits of the service are many:

• Reduces and removes barriers to learning
• Enables children to achieve their full potential – builds social competence and academic achievement
• Improves a child’s attitude to learning and ability to enjoy learning
• A targeted early intervention prevents more costly interventions being needed later
• Improves connection and level of engagement between school and family – strengthening of family unit
• Having a counsellor available on the school grounds benefits children and their families, teachers and the school community
• Ease of access, timeliness, availability of a professional opinion, a credible service delivered in a place that works for kids are all opinions that have been expressed by school staff