The SPBS Outreach Concern, Inc. Counseling Program
SPBS On Site School Counseling Program Summary and Overview:
During our present day, in which children and adolescents may be exposed consistently to increased stress; high expectations; sudden and/or dramaticchanges in family situations; consistent violence and a lack of moral values portrayed via secular society/media; academic pressure to succeed; coupled with increased demands and expectations for effective communication, social, and problem-solving skills, the well-adjusted adult of tomorrow needs parental and teacher support and collaboration now, while still in elementary school. This will help our students better achieve success now, and and then will also increase their later individual interpersonal, academic, and career potential. This is why Saint Paschal Baylon School (SPBS) contracts with Outreach Concern, Inc. to provide on-site pupil personnel services for our students.
Our school counseling program is a pupil personnel developmental and psychological support system, which is designed to address the specific individual and grade-level needs of each student. Our Outreach Concern, Inc. school counselors are trained to recognize and attend to age-specific stages of student growth, as well as to identify unusual developmental symptoms, in conjunction with our teachers and parents. Outreach Concern, Inc. was founded in 1994, and currently provides over 500,000 students and families in over 80 schools throughout Southern California access to a variety of pupil personnel services aimed at positively impacting your child’s academic performance. In addition, at various stages of the growth and maturation process, students experience differentiated needs and interests. SPBS Outreach Concern, Inc. counselors also work to address these changes through a collaborative partnership with parents, teachers, and administrators at SPBS.
Our teachers work hard to impart knowledge, provide faith formation, and manage their classrooms effectively, and our on site school counselors are often able to assist them in this process. At Saint Paschal Baylon School teachers, administrators, and counselors work together to help provide our students with an atmosphere of safety, trust, care, Catholic values, and positive regard. By forming these partnerships, SPBS is better able to foster enhanced academic, career, personal, and social development for both our school’s children and our adolescents.
Outreach Concern, Inc. provides a behavioral-based, short-term intervention program designed to provide additional support to our students in all grades, whose learning and academic success may be negatively impacted by emotional/behavioral factors such as: an inability to manage emotions appropriately; resolve conflicts effectively; consistently meet grade level behavior, work habits, and/or academic standards; and/or engage in successful interpersonal relationships at school.
The overall purposes of our school counseling program and the SPBS counselors’ on-site activities are: to help students accomplish short and long-term academic/personal goals; to improve grades, attendance, and/or peer relationships; as well as to help decrease disruptive or counter-productive behaviors. Of course, all counseling services provided by Outreach Concern are confidential; records are retained by the counselors; they are not part of the student’s school file. It is part of our counselors’ plan to involve parents; consult with the student’s teachers; and involve school administration when needed, in order to maintain a strong partnership, aimed at positively impacting the students’ performance and behavior.
Why Do Primary and Elementary–age Students Need Counseling Support?
Elementary school is a time when children develop attitudes concerning self, peers, social groups, school, faith, and family. In addition to academics, at Saint Paschal Baylon School teachers help their students to develop good work habits, appropriate behaviors, moral decision-making, good communication skills, and Catholic/Christian character values.
Elementary school students typically:
- Have boundless energy
- Have questions which help in their understanding of their environment
- Seek attention and praise
- Develop decision-making and task completion skills
At varying stages of growth in Kindergarten through fifth grade, students may need counseling support or intervention for issues such as:
- Understanding self and others
- Peer relations, effective social skills, and conflict resolution
- Communication, problem-solving, decision-making, and study skills
- Coping strategies
- Impulse Control
- Multicultural awareness
- Self-esteem, interpersonal concerns
- Academic development
- Organizational skills; work habits
- Behavior modification
- Family issues
- Peer mediation
- Increased self-esteem
A small, supportive Catholic school, such as SPBS, provides parents, teachers, and counselors with optimum opportunities to create a safe and nurturing environment, in which students’ needs are met through prevention, early identification, and intervention. The pupil personnel services provided at SPBS through Outreach Concern, Inc. help increase students’ self-esteem, coping skills, time-management and ultimately their academic success both now and in the future.
Why Do Junior High Students Need Counseling Support?
Junior high school (grades 6-8) is an exciting, but can also be a frustrating time for students, primarily due to their physical and psychological changes and transitions. This age can also lead to frustrating times for teachers and parents, because of struggles involving increased discipline and appropriate decision-making issues, along with the “testing” of boundaries created by figures of authority. This is where counselors can help ease these transitions for both students and families.
Junior high school-age students are typically:
- Physically active, yet easily fatigued by rapid physical growth
- Searching for their identity by turning more toward their peers for ideas and validation of ongoing identity-formation, and away from immediate family
- Very sensitive to comments from peers and elders and to any potential criticism
- Rely heavily on friends for comfort, understanding, and approval
- Continue to crave attention and praise from parents
As students transition through this difficult life stage, our on site school counselors are able to assist students and their parents. They also serve as a resource for our teachers and administrators, to help promote effective classroom middle school management by:
- Helping students identify skills and achievements
- Identifying students in need of counseling support and intervention
- Developing students’ awareness of attitudes and interests
- Promoting students’ welfare by helping meet their academic and emotional needs
- Behavior modification
- Fostering effective communication skills
- Promoting effective learning and time-management skills
- Fostering students’ interpersonal and peer relations
- Improving the students’ self-esteem
- Creating a “listening” environment, which helps the student feel “heard”
Junior high school years are a time in which parents, teachers, and counselors can work together to create an atmosphere of enhanced self-esteem, academic achievement, and personal growth for the student. Counselors are able to provide a unique role for our students at SPBS, because they do not assess students for grades, and issue Report Cards, etc. Rather, they serve as appropriate and mature adults who care about our students, and who are trained professionals in terms of listening and helping our junior high students learn to make good choices.
We view it as a priority at SPBS to be able to provide comprehensive pupil personnel and counseling services for our students in all grades. SPBS counselors are on campus from 8:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday: our two counselors alternate days. We encourage parents to refer your child to our counselors, should you feel that you and/or they may need additional insight or guidance at any time during their years at SPBS. Please also be assured, that the Outreach Concern, Inc. counseling program at SPBS is aligned with our Catholic faith, and that any advice or conflict resolution assistance provided by them is based on the example provided to us by Jesus Christ.