School Counsellor

**Job role**:
Barnsley Academy is seeking to appoint a new School Counsellor to join the team. The academy is part of United Learning, a national group of schools and academies. Barnsley Academy is an 11-16 secondary. As part of United Learning our aim is to bring out ‘the Best in Everyone’ and we continuously strive to ensure that students and staff have every opportunity to succeed, with their potential developed to the utmost.

The role is primarily to provide one to one counselling to students, to maintain appropriate records and liaise regularly with the School Departments, Vice Principals, Deputy Head, Student Support Advisors and with other professionals as necessary. The School Counsellor will provide a counselling service to the students (and where necessary the staff) of Barnsley Academy.

**Main duties will include**:

- To provide an independent and confidential counselling service to students and staff through individual sessions, responding to their personal, social, emotional or educational concerns.
- To promote a caring and supportive environment where such concerns may be explored, thereby promoting the mental and emotional health at Barnsley Academy.
- To maintain confidentiality (except in those circumstances, in line with BACP practice, where this should be breached).
- To make referrals, where appropriate and with the student’s consent, to other agencies.
- To work with a diverse range of issues including bereavement and loss, transition, eating disorders and self-harm, depression, anger management and erratic behaviour, abuse of any kind, anxiety and fears.
- To provide consultation to staff whose role it is to support students in distress.
- To report back on a regular basis on numbers using the service and give a general overview of the types of problems with which the users of the service are presenting.
- To perform duties within the codes of practice and ethics recommended by the BACP, UKCP or equivalent organisation.
- To devise and, where appropriate, deliver a programme of training to support and develop the counselling service.

**What we can offer you**:

- Excellent facilities and resources.
- A chance to become part of one of the largest groups of academies in the country.
- Caring, dedicated and friendly students.
- Colleagues who are supportive, friendly and who are committed to each other’s professional development.
- Excellent employee benefits which include an excellent pension scheme.

**What we would like from you;**
- Post-graduate diploma or Masters level in counselling or psychotherapy.
- BACP accreditation, UKCP registration or BPC.
- Skilled at developing children’s self esteem and motivation so that they become resilient, independent learners.
- An understanding of the developmental, emotional, social and educational issues of children and young people.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join an Academy making year on year progress under current leadership. Please see the Job Description and Person Specification for further information.