Support for Learning

School Counsellor

The Role of the Counsellor 

In Sweden all schools have a counsellor who works with students and staff. The counsellor's main task is to promote a good psycho-social work environment for students in the school. Activities include work to prevent bullying and to promote effective communication. The Counsellor aims to support the achievement of a balanced school life for all students. 

A lot of the counsellor's work involves conversation. The talks can take place with individual students, with student groups or classes, with parents and with staff. The talks can be off different nature. The talks may be supportive, motivating or about feelings and thoughts that students may have.

Confidentiality

School counsellor is bound by confidentiality, which means that he or she cannot tell anyone what was said during the talks. The counsellor can only share information with teacher or other authorities, e.g. BUP if there is an agreement with the student or/and parents. The counsellor can have talks with a student without consent from the parents if the student is 12 years old and depending how mature the student is. With younger students the counsellor must have consent from parents. The counsellor has the right to withhold information from the student's parents if there is a risk that the child may be put in a danger, e.g. suspected child abuse. The confidentiality can be broken by a so called notification to the social services if that a child is suspected to be threatened, suspects of any kind of abuse or if the student is treated seriously ill in any way.

Duty to Report

According to the law of social service (SoL) Chapter 14, § 1 a counsellor is guilty to notify the social service if there is a suspicion that a child is mistreated. It may be a suspicion regarding, e.g. physical or psychological abuse, sexual abuse, that a child doesn't get their basic needs such as lack of food, clothing and care. This also applies to other staff at the school.

The Counsellor’s Role at ISÄ

• The counsellor is available primarily for students, and for staff for consulting and or coaching regarding students. 
• If a situation occurs, teachers try to resolve the situation first, because it is the teacher who has the most contact with the student and is the person at school who knows the student best.
• Parents should first turn to the teachers regarding situations that affect their children. If the teacher sees a need for a student to have talks with the counsellor, the teacher can suggest this to parents and obtain consent for the talks with student under the age of 12 years. It is good to inform parents that their child needs to see the counsellor even if the child is older than 12 years because it is always good to have the parents on board.
• The counsellor will be involved when the teacher feels that they cannot handle a situation, on request of the principal and the parents or if the student comes to the counsellor on their own.
• To be able to know group dynamics, the counsellor can be present in the classroom, to look at interactions between students and/or between students and staff.  
• The counsellor should socialize with students during breaks and at other times where it's possible for students and counsellor to get to know each other.

Special pedagogue

Inclusion at ISÄ

The students support at ISÄ starts with proactive and inclusive teaching strategies in the classroom. Teachers work with Universal Design for Learning to remove barriers for learning at a group level. In our school we put a strong focus on building connections between the students, and between teacher and students. This is an important value as this improves the feeling of community which helps to create a safe learning environment where all students feel included, seen and welcomed. This work is built on strategies from Responsive classroom.  The school day at ISÄ starts with a Morning meeting routine (greeting, sharing, activity, morning message) and updates for the day. We also have regular wellbeing lessons based on our Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) program Fly Five. In PYP the wellbeing is included in the morning meetings. At ISÄ wellbeing and inclusion are core values.

Our support procedure starts in the classroom. Our teachers work with Universal Design for Learning, to include all students in the regular lessons. In case of academic or social concerns for a student, teachers start a first-step-talk with the student, to involve the student and dig for understanding. Based on the first step agreements, teachers start individual adaptations in their classroom. These adaptations are followed up and if not sufficient, a subject mapping is initiated, and an individual action plan implemented. For students with more severe challenges, deeper investigations are conducted by special education teachers, and special support can be suggested.  Examples of the special support that can be provided; needs-based one-to-one support, interventions (1:1 or small group) or an adapted schedule.

In PYP we use screening tools to monitor reading development, and to provide early interventions. In MYP we also assess our students’ reading levels and plan teaching strategies to support with further development.

Adaptations and special support

Our special education teachers work closely with the teachers and the students, and support teachers to implement inclusive UDL strategies. In PYP the special education teachers regularly conduct reading assessments and work with interventions on group level and individual level, as well as with special support.

The special education teachers take part in regular Students Welfare Team meetings (SWT), together with the school nurse, school counselor, school guidance counselor (SYV) and the school leadership team. Our SWT also regularly consults the Centrala Barn och Elevhälsan (CBEH), where ISÄ can request support from the school psychologist, special pedagogues and the school doctor.

Language support at ISÄ

Since most of our learners at ISÄ has English as their second language, it is a requirement that all our teachers are language teachers. This means that adaptations are always included as a regular teaching strategy. We have assessments to indicate whether students need extra language support, which is provided by our special education teachers.

In our language policy we encourage students to continue developing in their mother tongue. Älmhult municipality offer mother tongue lessons, if there is a group of more than five students who are interested in learning a language.  Some students initially need to be supported by a mother tongue in class support, this is also be provided by Älmhults municipality.