Student Support Services – School Social Worker

Aberfoyle Park High School has welcomed two new school based social workers who are employees of the Department for Education, Student Support Services. Corinne McKee and Katerina Schmitt share a full-time position. Corinne works Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and Katerina works Tuesdays and Fridays. 

The social workers provide a service to students to support wellbeing concerns which are impacting upon a young person’s learning engagement. In their role, they are funded by the school to be based onsite to work with staff, students, and families in a variety of ways

Some of the activities the school social workers might be involved in include:

• Providing consultations to school staff on student concerns
• Running wellbeing group sessions with students 
• Providing assessment, case management and/or counselling to students
• One off or occasional conversations with students 
• Meetings involving parents/caregivers
• Participation in school led activities
• Involvement with Wellbeing for Learning curriculum development and delivery

Some examples of the type of areas the school social workers can support include:

• Relationships
• Emotional wellbeing e.g., stress, worries, feeling down, low self-esteem.
• Social isolation
• Social pressures e.g., social media, vaping

• Study and/or career pathway stressors 
• Support to parents/caregivers e.g., parenting stress 

Accessing the school social worker 

If you have any wellbeing concerns for your child or think they could benefit from talking with a school social worker, please talk with your child’s care group teacher as they should always be your first point of call regarding any wellbeing or learning needs. All referrals to social workers are made through the Assistant Principals for the Middle and Senior schools. 

Consent

If your child is identified that they could benefit from receiving social work intervention including 1:1 support, group work, or a referral to an external service, when applicable, the school or social worker will follow an informed consent process regarding your child’s involvement. 

If you have any concerns or questions about your child’s interaction with the school social work service please speak to the relevant Assistant Principal for the Middle School, Jenna English or Senior School, Fran Charlton.