School Counsellor - Narrandera High School

They provide counselling and psychological assessment of students to complement and enhance the work of teachers to strengthen student learning and wellbeing outcomes, and they help families understand and manage their children’s learning and mental health needs. This is a truly collegiate role offering unique challenges and opportunities – both in your professional development and your ability to make an impact on the lives of children and young people.

The successful candidate will be based at Narrandera High School and provided with opportunities to work across the lifespan with both primary and high school aged students. Working as a school counsellor in a NSW public school will enable you to engage with a diversity of students (and school communities) like no other child and adolescent psychologist role can. This is a chance to use your skills to make a real difference in the lives of children and young people at a time in their lives when it matters most.

School counsellors receive regular, individual professional supervision with the Senior Psychologist Education and participate in group and peer supervision as a member of the broader district school counselling team. You will most likely be collaborating with a number of school communities and colleagues, as well as outside agencies, with the opportunity to use and expand the full range of your skills and expertise as part of a supportive, multidisciplinary team.

School counsellors are provided with regular opportunities to participate in continuing professional development and the NSW Department of Education will support you to complete or maintain your registration with the Psychology Board of Australia. Other benefits include school holiday leave, travel allowances and health and wellbeing benefits such as our Fitness Passport program. The department will also cover your indemnity insurance as a psychologist.

Narrandera High School (NHS) is a comprehensive secondary school located in the Riverina region, with an enrolment of approximately 330 students - 30% of whom identify as Indigenous The school has a proud tradition of academic achievement, sporting success, and cultural excellence.

NHS offers a range of specialised programs and support services, including an Intervention Centre, a Clontarf Academy, the Stars Foundation, and an Aboriginal Learning and Engagement Centre (ALEC).

NHS is a successful Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) school, emphasising restorative practices and the development of positive relationships across the school community.

NHS is committed to enhancing classroom practices through ongoing staff professional learning and collaboration with local networks. Our initiatives focus on improving student literacy and numeracy using explicit teaching and data-driven strategies. We believe every student will achieve measurable progress and sustained growth. The school fosters continuous improvement, expecting growth from students, teachers, and leaders annually. We promote high educational aspirations and set ambitious goals, building strong partnerships with students and parents to motivate and support ongoing achievement and development. School Website - Narrandera High School.

Specific Selection Criteria

• Experience in counselling using evidence-based interventions with a demonstrated understanding of the mental health needs of children and young people.
• Experience in the psychological assessment of children and young people, including case formulation and report writing.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with key stakeholders to improve the learning and wellbeing outcomes of children and young people including students from diverse backgrounds and needs.

Conditions

• Be a registered or provisionally registered psychologist, or eligible for registration with the Psychology Board of Australia.
• Ability and willingness to travel between worksites. Must have a valid unrestricted provisional or full driver’s licence with the ability to drive oneself.
• This position is under the Teachers award (Crown Employees (Teachers in Schools and Related Employees) Salaries and Conditions Award 2024). To be eligible to apply, you must have an unconditional, full approval to teach or have eligibility to apply for an approval to teach. If you do not hold a full approval to teach with the NSW Department of Education, you are required to commence the application process at the same time as you apply for this teaching opportunity.

Special Notes

Rural and Remote Incentives Rural and Remote Incentive Package are available for eligible school counselling position

Successful applicants will be provided with a Departmental induction program, ongoing professional learning and professional supervision.

Find out more about working in the school counselling service. Visit the Department’s School Counselling Service pages to discover more about working as a school psychologist or school counsellor in NSW public schools.

Applicants are to include details of their WWCC clearance number as part of this application – WWCC must be NSW.

Applicants seeking either permanent full time or permanent part time employment are encouraged to apply for this position. If the recommended applicant is seeking permanent part time employment (FTE from 0.1 to 0.9 inclusive), they will be offered an appointment at their desired FTE. Applicants on the eligibility list will be offered the remaining FTE but are not obliged to accept. Further information can be found on the merit selection webpage

About the NSW Department of Education

The Department of Education is the largest provider of public education in Australia with responsibility for delivering high-quality public education to two-thirds of the NSW student population. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including but not limited to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people, people of any age or gender, people from culturally and linguistically diverse groups and/or from the LGBTQIA+ community, veterans, refugees, people with disability, people with sensory differences, and neurodiverse people. If we can make some adjustments to our recruitment/interview process to better help you shine, please reach out to the contact person for this recruitment, details listed above. For more information, visit the NSW Department of Education’s Diversity, equity and inclusion webpage.

Merit selection application guidelines for classroom teachers, executives and principals provide clear advice for applicants and selection panels. The guidelines are available here. To meet the page limits outlined in the guidelines, all application attachments must be submitted in PDF format. Please note that late applications will not be accepted.