Guidance

Guidance Department: Ms M Costello, Guidance Counsellor

The role of the Guidance Counsellor is to work both directly with students and in conjunction with other school staff as part of a whole school approach to Guidance. Receiving referrals from: Year Heads, Teachers, Parents and Students themselves, the Guidance Department promotes and aims to enhance the support system for students within the school. The holistic development of our students is a central part of the educational values of Mount Carmel Secondary School and we do this through three main areas:

Personal:

• Individual counselling- helping pupils develop coping skills they can use as they develop and become adults.
• Help with transitions as change can lead to difficulties for young people.
• Referral to an outside agency.
• Use of programmes such as Friends for Life and the Decider Programme

Educational:

• Assist students with choices regarding subjects and levels
• Aid motivation and management learning
• Showing students how to use available resources, study skills and exam techniques

Career / Vocational:

• Investigating and researching various careers through Intreo and other community links
• Investigating college courses through research, open days and guest speakers
• Identify students strengths and weakness from the results of various interest and aptitude tests
• Informing students of employment opportunities and apprenticeships
• The promotion of Careers Week and Careers Evening
• Advice clinics for CAO, HEAR, DARE and SUSI Applications

The Guidance & Counselling Service is a professional counselling service, which abides by a strict code of ethics and confidentiality policy as outlined by the Institute of Guidance Counsellors www.igc.ie .Confidentiality is a central and integral part of the counselling process and is assured to each student who avails of the service. The issue of confidentiality is always discussed with students during the first session. However In exceptional circumstances the guidance counsellor may need to break confidentiality if they believe there is a real intent of serious harm or danger to either their student or another individual.