Jonash Ocampo, R/Deputy Principal at Beverly Hills Intensive English Centre, Beverly Hills:

Beverly Hills Intensive English Centre is quite a unique setting.

We've got a very specific purpose here to provide support for new arrivals and that encompasses students from refugee backgrounds, students who are coming from new migrant families, also international students.

Sven Andrlon, School Psychologist at Beverly Hills Intensive English Centre, Beverly Hills:

The role of the psychologist in schools is important for all schools, but I think specifically for the Intensive English Centre, we have a lot of students and families that are coming to Australia who have a long history of trauma.

A lot of our students have been witnessed to war, they've had to flee their home countries.

Really this is a space where a psychologist can do a lot of that early intervention work to support the student in adjusting to a new life.

And I think it's important if you provide good mental health support early, then you notice that these students begin to learn better, they socialise better and really you're kind of just setting them up for a smooth adjustment to their new culture and their new life.

Jonash Ocampo, R/Deputy Principal at Beverly Hills Intensive English Centre, Beverly Hills:

School Psychologists in an IEC play such an integral role because of the diversity of students and the diversity of their experiences.

Sven's role, particularly at point of enrolment, is essential to make sure that we can identify any significant issues early on and provide support to the families and to the students.

With Sven's support as a School Psychologist, we see a marked improvement in students' wellbeing and their concept of mental health as well.

Sven Andrlon, School Psychologist at Beverly Hills Intensive English Centre, Beverly Hills:

I think I really underestimated the impact that you can make as a School Psychologist.

You do see a lot of positive outcomes and a lot of growth and development from these students in such a small period of time, which is amazing if you think about it, given what they've recently gone through and the energy required to adjust so significantly and to keep continuing to go to school and to keep continuing to learn.

I'm learning so much talking to students from all sorts of backgrounds.

This is my first job as a psychologist and I wanted to work in a space where I'm really well supported, where I have supervision on a fortnightly basis.

I have group supervision all the time and the professional development here is incredible as well.

When I got the role, I was quite apprehensive about, I guess, the variety of students you'll see and the variety of modalities that you'll need to learn and what I can say is that once you get to the school, you're very well looked after and you're also working with one or two School Counsellors or School Psychologists at your school as well, so you have a good team within each school.

I work at an all-girls high school. I also work at a primary school that's got a support unit attached to it.

Really there's a big breadth of presentations and counselling referrals and assessment referrals that I get to work with and provide support with.

I absolutely love my job and I think the most rewarding for me is working with the student over a number of terms and really helping and seeing them learn how to build trust again.

That is definitely the most rewarding thing for me.

[End of transcript]

Cleo, Year 5 Student at Greenwich Public School, Greenwich:

Spending time with Daisy and Basil helps me learn how to cope with my feelings.

It helps me gather up all my thoughts and let me talk to someone.

Daisy Collins, School Counsellor at Greenwich Public School, Greenwich:

I think for a lot of students it is the first time that they've ever interacted with a counselling service before.

We're planting the seed in many ways as well.

We're helping them to realise that it's not as scary as it might seem to talk to somebody about their feelings and what might be going on for them.

Cleo, Year 5 Student at Greenwich Public School, Greenwich:

If I'm feeling upset, I can come and knock on her door and she will invite me in and I will feel listened to.

Drew Cunningham, Special Education Teacher at Greenwich Public School, Greenwich:

The counsellor has skills and knowledge that as a classroom teacher we don't have.

And they also have that time to have that one-on-one or that small group facilitation, which just gives another level.

Daisy Collins, School Counsellor at Greenwich Public School, Greenwich:

So I raised with my principal, would the principal be open to having a dog work with me in a school? And he was really open to it.

Basil is a two-year-old Cavoodle. He had to undergo a four-day training course with Therapy Dogs NSW, where he became an accredited therapy dog.

And he now works with me across two schools and he's been an invaluable addition to the school.

Working with Basil, I've been able to reach so many more students than I would have otherwise been able to reach.

Sometimes he might just be in the room and that's enough for children to sort of just stroke him while they're talking to me and that really calms their nervous system.

And in other cases I might do a little bit more goal-directed work with the students.

So the student might be teaching Basil some new tricks.

The benefit of that is you can't teach self-esteem, you have to experience it.

And so when a child sees that they've taught Basil something new, that gives them such an experience of success and you can see their self-esteem just really increase.

Cleo, Year 5 Student at Greenwich Public School, Greenwich:

He's just the most beautiful, loving and affectionate puppy.

If you're upset, he'll help you.

I think it's really important for every school to have a counsellor like Daisy.

Drew Cunningham, Special Education Teacher at Greenwich Public School, Greenwich:

It's imperative having School Counsellors in schools.

As a teacher for the last decade, you've seen a lot of students having high rates of anxiety, having more stress.

We've seen a clear change in some of our students' sort of negative incidents.

So prior to the Westmead Feelings Program, which is a program that Daisy and I ran, one student had nine incidents before we started the Westmead Feelings Program, and the data that we collected after we had done that showed there were two incidents and neither of those were major.

So they weren't physical or they weren't like, I guess, a big deal.

Daisy Collins, School Counsellor at Greenwich Public School, Greenwich:

When you walk into a school and you see students that may not have been attending before having interacted with Basil and myself,

I think that is a very rewarding experience.

When you can help a teacher understand what might be going on for a student and help unlock that, that understanding.

I think that's an incredibly rewarding aspect of the role.

I'd always enjoyed working with children and I always really loved studying psychology.

How do I combine those two interests?

And when the role of School Counsellor came up, it sort of just made immediate sense to me.

I would say to anybody considering a career in school counselling or school psychology to just do it.

You learn so much. There's so much professional development on offer in the department and you get to work with such a range of different presentations.

[End of transcript]

Astrid Linke, School Psychologist at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

I got a call from the principal when I was working in private practice one day to come and apply for the job here.

I used to go to this school actually, so it's pretty nice to come back here and help the kids and help the community that gave so much to me.

Roxy, Student at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

If I'm having a hard time in school, I just take that ten minutes out of my class and I just go see the community hub.

It allows me to focus back on my work, like I could be distracted a bit in class.

If I take that ten minutes and I go see Astrid, it just takes my mind straight back to the work and I just feel better.

Astrid Linke, School Psychologist at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

I definitely think having a School Counselling Service at Nyngan High School five days a week has enriched the students' learning here.

They're able to focus on what they're doing in class instead of carrying burdens or stress or anything that might be going on.

They can have that time out to come and get it off their chest and then return to class and be ready to learn.

Jacob, Student at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

I think it's important to have a School Psychologist out here in a rural school because we don't really get many psychologists out here and a lot of kids do have troubles out here and build things up, but having Astrid here helps us a lot and makes us all feel comfortable and wanting to come to school.

Tanya Buchanan, Deputy Principal at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

Having Astrid in our school, it provides the support for the students so they feel more confident to be able to tackle the difficulties of being a student.

Also, she teaches skills that the student will need at school and also later on in life.

Astrid Linke, School Psychologist at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

The students out here experience a lot more diverse problems.

We often experience droughts.

We've just had a flood and it's getting quite dry again, so they've got to deal with those pressures of living on the land.

There's quite limited mental health services around our area, so we'd often have to travel at least two hours to see the nearest psychologist and I really saw a need for that out here, hence where my passion came from to come back out here and give back to the rural community I grew up in.

Tanya Buchanan, Deputy Principal at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

Having a School Psychologist really helps with early intervention, particularly with Astrid, we are very lucky because she works at our local primary school.

So potentially she's going to be seeing our students as soon as they come into school.

Astrid Linke, School Psychologist at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

By the time they get to high school, I'm already a familiar face and if they do have any problems, they feel comfortable coming to see me as we've already probably caught up before or they've seen me walking around the playground.

Roxy, Student at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

She's just an amazing person to talk to and if I ever have a problem, I'll definitely go to her first.

She makes me feel so comfortable. She's just great to talk to.

Astrid Linke, School Psychologist at Nyngan High School, Nyngan:

I had a student, if you had of asked her what she would be doing, she would have said nothing, but it was just so rewarding for both of us to see that she finally got there and had put those skills in place that we had been working on and built that confidence up to go out into the big wide world and do what she would like to do.

There are a number of advantages coming from the city out to a rural school.

Firstly, the financial advantage. There is a financial incentive for being in a rural school, but not only the financial but also the sense of fulfilment that you get from this job is like no other job that I've had.

Just how rewarding it is and building those relationships with the children.

I love living in a rural town.

I think just the sense of community that it brings and you know everyone.

It's such a supportive environment.

Feeling a part of a community which is what you get out here and it's very rewarding.

[End of transcript]

Sany Mehta-Tran, School Psychologist at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

I actually have wanted to be a psychologist, I believe, since I was in Year 10. I just knew.

I don't think I would have ever imagined myself working in a school just because I thought kids are so hard to work with.

However, little did I realise it's actually extremely rewarding.

I very much enjoy working with children.

Jodi Harris, Principal at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

So Sany, our School Psychologist, has come with a wealth of knowledge because of her training in psychology.

And it's wonderful having her in our school to meet the needs of our children.

We have a lot of new arrival students, students who have come here as refugees.

Sany Mehta-Tran, School Psychologist at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

It's wonderful that I've got the opportunity to work with some of these students and make an impact in not just their transition to education, because a lot of these students have never received education in the past, but also their transition into the country.

So I worked closely with this student who had never had any schooling before.

No academic skills per se, no socialisation even.

They didn't want to be inside the school because they didn't quite understand what this place was.

And having previous trauma, of course, of refugee camps and those sorts of things, and helping build that sense of safety by working closely with her and hearing her speak for the first time was the most wonderful, rewarding feeling.

Victoria Auraha, Learning Support Teacher at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

It's really important to have a School Psychologist or Counsellor as a part of the team at Smithfield Public School, or in any school for that matter, to really help cater for those diverse needs of our students.

I think it's very important to have someone like Sany, who is a School Psychologist in our school, because she's able to give us information and support us in avenues that we haven't been part of before.

She's able to find the needs of specific students and support us with that.

She's a key stakeholder in supporting parents with their children and supporting classroom teachers and giving them strategies to support their students.

Sany Mehta-Tran, School Psychologist at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

Early intervention is so important, especially when tackling things like mental health stigma.

So it makes a huge difference if you start early in normalising some of these mental health concerns as well as help seeking behaviour.

Jodi Harris, Principal at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

A typical day for Sany would be assessing students and working out what their academic needs are.

It might involve one-on-one counselling with individual students.

And for those children, that can be the difference between them actually being able to engage in their learning for the rest of that week.

Sany Mehta-Tran, School Psychologist at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

Professionally, I feel like I have a lot of opportunity to grow.

We've got multiple professional development things happening, so workshops, seminars that I can be part of.

Jodi Harris, Principal at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

Being a School Psychologist in a school is a very rewarding role.

But one of the things that I think people who are looking at that role should also be excited about is you actually are very much classed a member of the school.

Victoria Auraha, Learning Support Teacher at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

Sany is an integral part of the Smithfield Public School community.

She's also worked with me in the wellbeing groups, where we teach children healthy cooking skills.

Sany Mehta-Tran, School Psychologist at Smithfield Public School, Smithfield:

I would recommend working as a School Psychologist because no two days are the same.

You always get to do and learn something new every single day and having the amount of people that we're surrounded by, not just staff, but also families and the external community.

[End of transcript]

Jarrah Seager, School Psychologist at Willyama High School, Broken Hill:

I was working with children and adolescents with acute mental illness and those at risk of suicide, self-harm or homicide and I was in the space of quite challenging behaviours and felt like I couldn't truly make a difference to some of the students.

So I looked at starting with education so that I could go more into the early intervention space.

Early intervention is very important because they can develop the skills to use before they get distressed, if that makes sense.

So in my previous role, working in a reactive space when their problems were challenging, helping them in this role helps them develop the skills to be able to cope with any challenges that life throws at them.

Taylor, Student at Willyama High School, Broken Hill:

It's made such a difference for me and for the people I know and just probably everyone at my school in general.

And I think a lot of people at the school will agree with me that Jarrah is the best psychologist that we have here.

Matt Cawley, Deputy Principal at Willyama High School, Broken Hill:

The wealth of knowledge that she has brought with her to the role has been invaluable.

We are here to try and improve students' outcomes. We are here to prepare them for their life after school.

If we do not have wellbeing structures that include a School Psychologist, I feel like we're only equipping ourselves with half the tools necessary to achieve our ultimate goal, which is preparing students for the life after school.

Taylor, Student at Willyama High School, Broken Hill:

It helps so much knowing that somebody is listening and you're not alone.

Being able to come up to the Oasis and talk to Jarrah, it's kind of refreshing knowing that there's always a safe space for you.

It helps with learning a lot. It's easier to concentrate knowing that if you had a bad lesson, you can just go upstairs.

Matt Cawley, Deputy Principal at Willyama High School, Broken Hill:

You can't expect a student to be achieving outcomes academically unless they've got well-defined and supportive wellbeing structures around them.

So having a School Psychologist there as part of our overall wellbeing support structure is immensely important.

Jarrah Seager, School Psychologist at Willyama High School, Broken Hill:

I work across two schools. I work across Morgan Street Public School and Willyama High School and Morgan Street is a feeder school to Willyama.

To be a part of seeing a student in primary school, helping them transition through to the high school here and then move on into further education or start their goals and their, you know, big, big picture life, it is such a rewarding job.

And I guess being present in the, in the building and being present in their lives for a long time, that continuity, you get to see those differences.

Whereas in another role, you might only see them for six to eight sessions and they get discharged.

Whereas in the School Psychologist role, you're in their lives for years and that's so rewarding.

There's so many things to love about my job. I think the main thing for me is feeling like

I'm making a difference in my community.

Oh, the lifestyle here is just amazing. I live five minutes away. You're never late to work. You can go bushwalking. The sunsets out here are phenomenal.

The people, the country people are beautiful and so friendly.

It's just a very easy laid back place to live and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else.

[End of transcript]

Ryan Saunderson, School Counsellor at Erina High School, Erina:

I did the Master of Teaching, majoring in School Counselling.

Never really thought about moving outside of Sydney, we just kind of had that mindset that we had to be in Sydney.

And then as soon as we started exploring the areas outside, we were kind of, yeah, smacking ourselves in our heads why we didn't think a little bit more about that earlier, because we love the Central Coast.

I can definitely see some impacts of some of the work that I do.

There's those long-term students that have had a really disrupted childhood, and being able to work with them on an ongoing way to build a trusting relationship, not just between you and them, but between them and their teachers as well.

Paul Broadbent, Principal at Erina High School, Erina:

Ryan works with the staff and the whole team.

We have a learning support team.

We meet weekly, before school, and discuss a range of students, using his insights.

If there's been a student which he's worked with for a period of time in the week before, he might bring that student to attention, just to make sure that that student is being supported to the level that they require.

Ryan Saunderson, School Counsellor at Erina High School, Erina:

I really love being part of not just sort of a school team, where I can refer concerns onto my superiors as well, to make sure that I feel supported.

I have a supervisor, my Senior Psychologist Education, who I can talk to and troubleshoot issues that I don't understand, or maybe I need some support on.

So at a certain level, I will have to refer out to the hospital or external sort of mental health teams.

Paul Broadbent, Principal at Erina High School, Erina:

Talking about the difference that a School Psychologist can make, a particular Year 7 student at the school, their attendance at school was terrible.

It was a real struggle for the parent just to get the student to come to school.

And then through a number of sessions and a number of meetings with the Counsellor, connecting, making connection to the school, that student's attendance has gone through the roof.

And if I looked at the last term of schooling, I don't think there's been a day where that student has missed school.

So that's a fantastic outcome.

Took a phone call from the student's mother, thanking the school for the support and intervention that the school has given, in particular, Ryan and the School Counselling Service.

Ryan Saunderson, School Counsellor at Erina High School, Erina:

I definitely feel like the capacity to work with a school culture as well, is much better as a School Counsellor, because you're in it, you're in the thick of it.

One of my favourite things about the role, every day is very different, depending on where I'm at, and depending on what the students need on the day.

At the primary schools, usually there's some sort of assessment or observation I'll be doing on a young person.

Learning support meetings, so talking with other staff around their concerns about learning or wellbeing or behavioural issues for kids.

In the high school, counselling is my bread and butter.

A lot of that work looks like, sort of triaging for risk, making sure, managing risk, including different supports around the school to make sure kids are looked after.

We have a support unit at Erina High, and a lot of my time will also be spent in the support unit.

So that's often the low stakes interaction with kids, so getting to know them a little bit better.

So if ever there are needs around learning support, or needs around wellbeing, there's that pre-established rapport.

At North Gosford Learning Centre, which is a school for a specific purpose, the kids there are usually there because their mental health needs are beyond what mainstream school can usually provide for, or their behaviours are quite significant, and schools have found that they're quite disengaged from their education.

I really like North Gosford because that sort of allows me to spend more time with the same students, because there's a very small cohort.

So that's been some really fulfilling ongoing counselling there, and again, more intensive work with individual students.

Paul Broadbent, Principal at Erina High School, Erina:

Anyone that's considering becoming a School Psychologist, know that when you're working in a school, you're a part of a team, you're part of a learning community, and you are making a massive difference to that school and to that learning community.

[End of transcript]

Michelle Bowden, Senior Psychologist Education at Willawarrin Public School, Willawarrin:

I had been working as a casual teacher around the Kempsey area and I just said to the Department of Education, "Send me where you want to," and so they moved me out to Walgett.

I was employed there as the Behaviour Teacher and one of the things I did as the Behaviour Teacher was ran a return from suspension program.

Often it was the first time anyone had asked them about their side of the story.

And that came to the attention of the School Counsellors there, and then one of them said, "Oh, you should become a School Counsellor."

So, School Counselling and Tele-psychology Rural and Remote Schools.

The SCATRRS program is so critical to support people in rural and remote areas.

So initially it involves organising our base school, so I've been lucky to be able to liaise with the Principal and get my base school here and set up my office.

Most of us have got about four schools that we service, so when I get allocated a new school, I get out to that new school as soon as I can.

I meet the key people, so the Principal, the Deputy, the Learning and Support Teacher, the SPE.

So the telehealth appointments, they're facilitated by me.

High schools, I send the link to the young person, it goes to their email box. I also send it to my key people. They might go and get them out of class and bring them to the room.

Primary schools, I send the link directly to the, say, the Learning and Support Teacher.

One of the things I really enjoy about the SCATRRS role is the diversity of the people that I meet, the communities that I work in.

I would absolutely recommend someone to go work as a School Counsellor in the rural and remote areas.

It's a wonderful career path. Have a bit of a sense of adventure.

These places are just, they're so unique, they're so enriching, there's so much to see, there's so much to explore.

And every person you pass smiles and, you know, nods at you or, you know, says good morning or whatever.

The connections I made with the people, with the school, with the parents, with the community, being part of the community.

It is a challenging role, but it's a really rewarding role.

When I worked at Melville High School, I was based there for 10 years and two of the toughest girls that I worked with, these girls really, really challenged me.

About three or four years ago, both of them got back in contact with me and just said, thank you so much for not judging us, for always accepting us when we came back and for just being there and for advocating for them.

You know, things like that makes it so, so rewarding.