Job title: School Counsellor Salary: H7 - H9 - £32,789 - £42,500 (including fringe) pro rata, dependent on experience and qualifications. Actual salary £28,046 - £36,352 (assuming 37 hours per week) Hours: Up to 37 hours per week, term time one week/INSET days (working 39 weeks pa) job share possible Responsible to: SLT Line Manager Contract: Permanent We are seeking a School Counsellor to work as part of our friendly pastoral and learning support team. We recognise that many of our pupils face a range of challenges every day and we are committed to supporting their social, emotional and mental health. As School Counsellor you will provide a professional and confidential service to pupils to promote emotional health and wellbeing and help pupils to overcome barriers to learning, develop resilience and become independent young adults. Your work will be confidential and independent, and you will work closely with the Designated Safeguarding Lead to ensure Child Protection. In our school, as well as working with our pupils on a one-to-one basis, our School Counsellor offers group support, for example with our Young Carers. They also work with our pastoral team to triage cases and make external referrals where appropriate. The School Counsellor is very much integrated with our staff, attending weekly Pastoral Care Team meetings and joining staff Inset where appropriate. Applicants must have a counselling qualification at diploma or masters equivalent recognised by the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists or the UK Council for Psychotherapy (or be working towards accreditation). Visitors tell us that our school is a friendly, lively and stimulating community where we emphasise the importance of the individual’s contribution and take pleasure in sharing and celebrating achievement. They commend the good behaviour of the pupils and their thirst for knowledge. Bishop’s is a diverse community that offers mutual support and encouragement and expects everyone within it to respect others’ heritage, identity, religion and beliefs. We hope that the values, self-discipline and sense of personal worth that pupils gain here will be a support throughout their lives as British and Global Citizens. We particularly welcome applications from BAME candidates or from other groups that are underrepresented in the UK education system. We are a single sex school but we encourage any gender to apply for staff posts. Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School has around 950 pupils on roll including the Sixth Form. We are fully committed to our values of teamwork, respect, honesty, trust, kindness and ambition. The school successfully completed its most recent OFSTED inspection in December 2022 and was judged to continue to be Outstanding. However, we are not driven by Ofsted and our priorities lie in supporting our pupils to develop their knowledge, skills and character through the ‘Bishop’s 360’ model. The school has benefited from a total rebuild on the same site and enjoys excellent state of the art facilities. BHGS holds International School Status and is a Fairtrade School. Hatfield is within easy reach of London and other areas and the London Fringe Allowance is payable. The school's Admissions’ Code gives priority places to children of staff. We give high priority to staff development and staff are able to apply for our Professional Development Award which provides bursary payments to help finance CPD that goes beyond the school’s usual training programme. We take safeguarding of our students extremely seriously and an enhanced disclosure will be sought through the Disclosure and Barring Service as part of the school’s pre-employment checks. Please see the job description for more detail. Closing date for applications: Monday 9th February 9am (we reserve the right to make an early appointment should a suitable candidate apply before this date) An Equal Opportunities’ Employer, Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School is committed to the protection and safety of its pupils and expects all staff to share this commitment.