Running head: SURVEY OF TERRACE RIDGE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICES 1

Survey of Terrace Ridge School Counselling Services

Shelly Treleaven

ECC 514: Introduction to School-based Counselling Skills

Prepared for: Carol-Anne Haring

M. Ed. In Leadership

City University of Seattle in Canada

SURVEY OF TERRACE RIDGE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICES 2

Introduction

As stated in the ​Alberta Comprehensive School Guidance and Counselling Program and

Services,​ “[t]he future of school counselling is inexorably tied to the changes that are occurring

in education generally” (pg. 62). As school divisions develop strategies of support, they must

consider everything from accountability, budgets, and curriculum to the value placed on the

services provided. In order for a comprehensive school guidance and counselling program to be

developed, all stakeholders must unite and work as a cohesive group with the goal of developing

support aimed at success for all students. Counselling at the school level requires both specific

education and diverse skills and attributes that allow counsellors to work with and understand

students and their needs. The individuals in these roles need to be excellent at staying organized

and skilled at time management, but they also need to be good listeners, excellent at

communication and building relationships, as well as flexible, friendly, and knowledgeable.

Every province in Canada has different expectations for a counsellor in schools. For instance, in

British Columbia, counsellors are unregulated, but the expectation within a school district is that

they have a minimum of an education degree and a masters in a “recognized counselling

psychology or a related discipline with a focus on counselling” (pg. 3). New Brunswick on the

other hand, has a robust list of compulsory courses as well as recommended courses and is a

member of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA). New Brunswick

also expects that in addition to having taught for 3 years, a masters level degree is expected of its

school based counsellors (pgs. 5-6). Alberta Education is part of the CCPA, but many

jurisdictions have different educational requirements and expectations of the persons in the role

of counsellor at the school level. In ​Alberta Comprehensive School Guidance and Counselling
SURVEY OF TERRACE RIDGE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICES 3

Program and Services​, Alberta Education has indicated that staffing at a jurisdictional level

requires that the program manager is a certified teacher and has a list of specialized knowledge in

specific areas. At the school level a counsellor is expected to be a certified teacher with two

years of successful teaching experience, has the ability to coordinate services and is both

sensitive and familiar with student need (pgs 28-29).

School Demographics

Terrace Ridge school is located on the outskirts of a rural city of approximately 13 000

people. The school is located in a newer part of the city but directly adjacent to a trailer park.

Most of the homes in the area are well maintained and the majority of the students come from

middle income families. The school has a student population of 431 students in pre-kindergarten

to grade 7 classes. The school has 22 professional staff and 22 support staff. There are 55

students identified as requiring support in the classroom.

Program Components

Rainbows - Rainbows is a program to help students grieve and grow after loss. This

program is coordinated by the School Social Worker (SSW) but is run by a trained community

partner. The group meets once a week for 3 months and is offered two times a year.

Zones of Regulation - This program/philosophy is infused in Terrace Ridge. The Zones

of Regulation is a systematic, cognitive behavioural approach used to teach self-regulation by

categorizing all the different ways we feel and states of alertness we experience into four

concrete colored zones. Each teacher works both with the class at large and with individual

students to develop common language around self-regulation and strategies for regulation.
SURVEY OF TERRACE RIDGE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICES 4

Roots of Empathy - Roots of Empathy is a classroom based program that is designed to

reduce levels of aggression among school children by raising social/emotional competence and

increasing empathy. This program is facilitated by the SSW along with the classroom teachers

and community members.

Knights and Squires - Knights and Squires is a group specifically designed to promote

leadership skills and attitudes as well as mentoring between the grade 4 and 7 boys of our school.

This program was developed and is delivered weekly by a partner from Central Office.

Girls Club - Girls Club was designed to meet the growing need for self-esteem, self-care,

compassion, and social awareness development in the grade 7 girls. This group meets once a

week and is facilitated by the SSW in conjunction with the grade 7 teachers.

Sunshine Kids - Teachers are asked at the start of the school year if they are aware of any

student that needs extra relationships. The student does not need to be in your class, but then the

SSW matches students with staff. All staff, including custodians and admin. assistants are

included with the matches. The purpose of the matches is to develop a relationship with the

student and let them know they are seen and cared about.

Survey Results

Terrace Ridge does not employ a counsellor and the person in our building fulfilling this

role is the SSW. She is assigned to our school 0.6 FTE. Together with the SSW a Counsellors’

Role in Students’ Academic, Career, and Personal Development Audit Checklist was completed,

and a summary of the roles of the SSW were established. In the ‘Format of Delivery’ section,

the SSW identified the portion of time spent on individual counselling as considerable. The next,

most time consuming portion of counselling was that of time spent with small groups. Together
SURVEY OF TERRACE RIDGE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICES 5

the SSW indicated that these two areas account for eighty percent of her time at school. It was

interesting that she indicated that quite a lot of time is spent on preventative counselling and that

very little to no time is spent on working with larger groups because as a teacher most of the

counselling or education we provide is done primarily as a large group. Another area that was

significant was the degree of outside referrals that are being done. The SSW indicated that she is

in contact with FCSS, Big Brothers and Sisters as well as outside family counselling or other

private therapists on an ongoing basis. This is done confidentially which is evident as few

people are aware that this happens in our school. The SSW is not involved in the program

development or delivery of curriculum and only somewhat involved in the delivery of content

around social responsibility. overall the areas that our SSW spends the bulk of her time and

focus is collaborative work with stakeholders, referrals to outside agencies, and individual and

small group counselling.

Assessment of Services

Counselling services are to provide support for the social, emotional, behavioural, and

mental health needs of students. In order to be able to fulfill this role, Alberta Education has

indicated that teacher counsellors are the standard to which schools should be striving for. This

however, costs money and the importance of this role in schools is not always valued to the same

degree as other programs or services.

The Terrace Ridge SSW holds a Social Work Diploma and is registered through the

Alberta College of Social Workers (ACSW). She is new to our school this year and replaced a

Family School Liaison Worker (FSLW) that had been at the school for over 13 years. She

embodies the characteristics that are deemed important or necessary for a school counsellor. She
SURVEY OF TERRACE RIDGE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICES 6

recognizes the importance of relationship building and demonstrates genuine concern for the

staff and students of Terrace Ridge. She has implemented many new programs this year,

Sunshine Kids is one of them. This program has the adults in the building reach out to their

Sunshine Student(s) - without the student knowing why - and make connections. It has been

such a success that she has now included a voluntary ‘Secret Friend’ program for the adults in

the building. Her goal is to have everyone make as many connections with each other as

possible, as she knows the impact these connections have on the mental health and happiness of

those involved (C. Lang, personal communication, November 22, 2018).

The types of programs offered to our students has fluctuated over the years in response to

student need, but this has been largely been driven by student or teacher requests. The former

FSLW offered 30 minute classes every other week at various grade levels, targeting specific

behaviours or social skills desired. She spent little time individually counselling but did connect

families to outside agencies when they were seeking support. The SSW does not offer in-class

preventative services, but this frees her up for individual or small group counselling and she runs

numerous clubs and small groups on an ‘as-needed’ basis. A concern would be that with

increased enrolment, time available for preventative programs will decrease and this will result

in less at-school supports being able to be offered to the students. Will this result in a significant

change in focus from preventative to reactionary supports?

The time allotment for the SSW or FSLW in our school has been steadily declining over

the last 4 years from full-time to 0.6 FTE. According to Alberta Education the average

counsellor to student ratio in an elementary school is 1:875 while a junior high school average is

1:466. Doing the math with our SSW only allotted 0.6 FTE this places our school at a ratio of
SURVEY OF TERRACE RIDGE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICES 7

1:718. This is on the low average for elementary but significantly over for our grade 7 students.

Alberta Education also states that the typical availability of counsellors in Alberta schools is

46.2% FTE in ECS - 6 school and 69.2% FTE in ECS - 9 schools (Alberta Education, 1997).

This information would indicate that our school has an average level of access but with a less

qualified individual running the programs.

The provincial averages according to Alberta Education are reported as: Developmental

Guidance Instruction at 30-35%, Individual Student Planning at 5-10%, Responsive services at

40-45% and School Community Support at 15-20% (Alberta Education, 1997). Based on the

information in the audit checklist one who have to assume that Terrace Ridge School or Wolf

Creek Public Schools has placed a priority on Responsive Services and School Community

Support as combined, they accounted for over 80% of the SSW’s time.

Conclusion

While the SSW at Terrace Ridge is a very skilled Social Worker, understanding that

Alberta Education suggests that all schools have access to Teacher Counsellors that hold a

Masters degree is rather alarming. One must wonder if this is the result of budget concerns or a

shift in focus? Is there a shortage of teachers that would qualify for this role, or are there

qualified people but they are not interested in the role? With these questions being asked, one

must recognize that these decisions are typically made at the division/central office and are out

of the hands of the school. As a school leader, developing the skills needed in the person placed

in this role may be necessary, especially if they lack any of the personality traits that are needed

to successfully counsell students in a school setting. Terrace Ridge has experienced a change in

this role over the past 6 months and the change from a FSLW to a SSW has been very positive
SURVEY OF TERRACE RIDGE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICES 8

even with a reduction in FTE due to the ability of the SSW to have the time to counsell

individual and small groups.

SURVEY OF TERRACE RIDGE SCHOOL COUNSELLING SERVICES 9

References

Alberta Education: Special Education Branch (1997). ​Guidelines for practice: comprehensive

school guidance & counselling programs and services - A program development and

validation checklist.​ Retrieved from

https://docushare.phrd.ab.ca/dsweb/Get/Document-416007/Exhibit%20-%20Comprehens

ive%20School%20Guidance%20&%20Counselling%20Programs%20and%20Servi

ces.pdf

Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (2012). ​Regulation for school counsellors

by province​. Retrieved from

https://www.ccpa-accp.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RegulationSchoolCounsellors_en.

pdf

North Vancouver School District (2013). ​Counselling services: Information for schools, parents

and students​. Retrieved from

https://www.sd44.ca/ProgramsServices/InclusiveEducation/Documents/CounsellingServi

ces.pdf

Wolfcreek Public Schools. (2018). Inclusive learning services. Retrieved from

https://www.wolfcreek.ab.ca/services/inclusive-learning