WORKING WITH SCHOOLS

The Road Centre provides an established, professional counselling service in schools for children and young people. Involved with over 50 schools in the north east of England, we provide a bespoke service to meet the needs of each individual school.

We provide full-day and half-day provision in both primary and secondary schools which can include one to one sessions and small nurture groups. Nurture groups can provide a space for pupils experiencing similar issues or for those identified by school staff to work on resilience, change/loss, self-esteem and confidence in a safe, nurturing environment.

Our counsellors are all fully qualified, experienced practitioners and registered members of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapy (BACP). They bring a professional and holistic approach to their work with children and young people.

**SCHOOL SERVICE CO-ORDINATOR**

The Road Centre also has a dedicated **School Service Co-ordinator** who can work closely with school staff ensuring the counselling service best meets the needs of the school. She also provides ongoing support to our staff and can offer advice to the school.
The entire focus of our work in schools is to ensure that each child or young person is enabled to reach their potential, working alongside the school system. Children and young people can struggle to put their difficulties into words and what they are feeling can come out in changed behaviour patterns. Counselling in the school environment can provide essential support for our vulnerable children and young people and help create a safe, confidential space for them to explore and share their concerns, struggles, fears and anxieties. This can lead to changes in how you feel about yourself, your relationships with others, how you think and how you behave.
Our counsellors adapt their work depending on each child’s age, stage of development and individual circumstances. They adopt creative approaches to aid expression and exploration of issues. This can aid communication and help facilitate the exploration and understanding of each child or young person’s world. Our counsellors build on each child’s strengths promoting healthy choices and developing resilience. Counselling can lead to changes in how children and young people feel about themselves, their current situations, and can positively impact on relationships with others and behaviours.

We also offer:

Staff Counselling

Pressure and demand is growing in every workplace and no less so than within the school environment. Stress and anxiety, together with growing workload can impact on both professional and personal lives – being proactive can prevent sickness absence and increase a sense of personal value.

Independent support enables staff to access therapy with complete confidence to address difficult and complex issues. Within the counselling sessions we can explore our understanding of the past, gain insight into the present and take greater control of the future. Counselling can help you make sense of difficult issues and take positive steps to resolve them.

““I appreciate that counselling isn’t for everyone but I could not have got back to work as quickly without it. I now have a ‘tool box’ full of things that I cannot only use for work but for other areas of my life.’ ”

— Primary School Teacher 2019

Supervision for Pastoral Care Staff

Various roles within the school environment require different key elements of support. The Road Centre is able to provide the following package of support; tailored to meet the responsibilities of specific roles within the school:

Consultative Support for Senior Members of the Management Team
Practical Supportive Discussion for Pastoral Care and SENCO staff
Clinical supervision for School Counsellors

As supervisors, it is our role to provide a safe, supportive and confidential space for each member of staff. We are aware that school staff support pupils and sometimes their families on a regular basis, often with complex social and psychological as well as learning-related issues. It is acknowledged that this can be detrimental to the staff member’s own health and wellbeing at times.

Supervision can provide a half termly opportunity to share, reflect on and offload some of the issues that can impact on work/home life balance. Our belief is that supervision is a process that has many functions and as such attends to the care of the member of staff and the emotional and psychological impact the work can have.

Staff Training

We offer various training courses and twilight sessions for staff which can be held in school or over zoom.

The staff of The Road Centre bring imagination and creativity to all their training programmes. Bespoke courses can be developed to suit your school’s needs:

Enhanced Listening Skills – six week course
Assertiveness
Stress/anxiety awareness and wellbeing

The following services are also available:

Counsellor recruitment support
Filling the gap – if a counsellor is absent for a period of time, or the school is left without a counsellor following end of employment etc The Road Centre can provide a service to meet urgent need
Critical incident support work – on site

““Sadly one of our students died recently. As a school community we were all devastated. The Road Centre were able to respond very quickly, counsellors came to school the very next day, they supported staff and worked with students offering time and a space to grieve and reflect on what had happened. It made a massive difference and we were very grateful.” ”

— Mental Health Co-ordinator, Secondary School