When it comes to budget setting I am asked why, one of the three things I fight for each year is the counsellor. For seven years we have used our Pupil Premium money to fund two days of counselling per week. In a climate that requires statistical impact all the time and every penny has to be accounted for, why go for counselling in a primary school?
When I first muted the idea of buying in counselling for some of our children the response was very mixed. Some staff were intrigued, others thought it was a waste of money and time, others thought it was something that belonged outside of school.
The first hurdle was to get them all on board. We had discussions about what hampers them from functioning properly at work? How is that different for a child who is experiencing issues outside of school and within our school walls and so preventing them for learning? There is often the view that some children just have bad behaviour or it is bad parenting. Behaviour for a small child is a ‘symptom’- an expression of how they are feeling.
It was three siblings that led me to investigate getting counselling into the school. The family had experienced some real trauma and the oldest blamed himself. In his eyes if he had not told someone, his family would still be together. What he did not realise due to his youthful age was that he very probably saved the lives of himself and his siblings. He spent weeks coming down to my office every day. Being just new to the school and not really knowing him, it took a few weeks to realise he was deliberately coming to my office and had not been sent. He just wanted time out to vent. We arranged for him and his siblings to talk to a counsellor weekly for 6 weeks to see if helped.
Six weeks sounds like quite a chunky of time but it was a drop in the ocean literally. We could see that the experience had the potential to have a real impact on the children. Six weeks turned into a long time – several years in fact. I can hear the comments from here to that one. ‘A few years! Who she kidding, we can't afford that!’ Well, it depends on what you want for the children. You can’t stop a flood with one sand bag. For it to really change these children’s lives it had to be meaningful and a plaster doesn't work on a six-inch-long two-inch-deep cut. By the end of their time at our school these children were able to articulate their feelings, they had an arsenal of strategies to help them through almost any situation and they were well settled. In fact, our PSA met a family member of theirs who simply said the support the children received saved their lives.
As a result of the impact, we worked with the counsellor to identify other children in the school requiring such support. We run a four- tier system. Those with severe problems/issues are seen or referred to CAMHs. Tier two children who need support but we think we can prevent from requiring CAMHS receive counselling. The length of time is dependent upon need. The third tier is nurture group. Our counsellor works with the PSA and during the Spring term our student Social Workers to run small nurture groups. The final tier is a light touch -’Touch Base’ session with the PSA during the week.
Feedback from parents and children seems anecdotal but for all the sessions have been nothing short of a lifeline for both children and their families. Many report changes in behaviour at home, children report feeling able to handle themselves with increased confidence. Over the years we have been told we must quantify the impact. How do you quantify it? The fact the children are in school and progressing socially, mentally and academically is for me evidence enough.
It may sound overdramatic but I would ‘Go to the Wall’ to save the Counselling sessions and as we move into a new era of multi-academy trust’ status I may well have to. Mental health issues can be as paralysing as a physically injury. More and more children are experiencing mental health issues yet at the moment we can not prevent the cause due to the increasing sources of problems that children now face. Hence, we are left trying to deal with the fallout and helping children.
HT, County Durham