Guidance Counselling

Guidance Counselling is available to all students and counselling sessions may be student-initiated or teacher referred. The school Guidance Counsellor has limited time (8 hours per week) so it is important to undersand that all teachers have a role to play in this area. Whānau teachers must be available to counsel their students if approached by them but, where patterns of negative behaviour have been observed, the whānau teacher must be notified and will be expected to begin methods to support the student to change their behaviour. Part of the overall pastoral care provided in this school allows any teacher to provide counselling where they consider that it may be advantageous to the student, and all staff members may be approached by students for this purpose. Please remember the team approach and inform senior leaders of difficulties being faced by students.

Incident Reports

The details of any major incidents which occur in the school must be recorded on the incident report forms and handed to a senior member of staff for investigation.  After processing, these forms will be placed in the appropriate student’s file and details entered into KAMAR.

Stand-downs and Suspension

In accordance with the Education Act 1989 (Section 14), the Principal may stand-down or suspend a student if satisfied on reasonable grounds that:

  • The student’s gross misconduct or continual disobedience is a harmful or dangerous example to other students at the school; or
  • Because of the student’s behaviour, it is likely that the student, or other students at the school, will be seriously harmed if the student is not stood-down or suspended for an unspecified period.

Stand-downs

A stand-down may be for one or more days, however:

  • The period or periods of stand-down may not exceed 5 school days in any one term
  • A student may be stood-down more than once in the same year but not for more than 10 school days in total that calendar year.
  • The principal may lift the stand-down at any time before it is due to expire.

Contracts

These are generally used for more serious offenses where the student’s continued presence at the school becomes conditional upon terms agreed to by the student, parents and the Principal where it may be the last step before the student is faced with possible suspension for a specified period or as a condition placed on the lifting of a suspension for an unspecified period by the B.O.T.