School Counsellor
- Palm Avenue School (NSW Centre for Effective Reading)

School counsellors are an essential part of the department’s School Counselling Service. They provide counselling and psychological assessment of students to complement and enhance the work of teachers to strengthen student learning and wellbeing outcomes, and they help families understand and manage their children’s learning and mental health needs. This is a truly collegiate role offering unique challenges and opportunities – both in your professional development and your ability to make an impact on the lives of children and young people.

The successful candidate will be based at Centre for Effective Reading (CER) and provided with opportunities to work across the lifespan with both primary and high school aged students. Working as a school counsellor in a NSW public school will enable you to engage with a diversity of students (and school communities) like no other child and adolescent psychologist role can. This is a chance to use your skills to make a real difference in the lives of children and young people at a time in their lives when it matters most.

School counsellors receive regular, individual professional supervision with the Senior Psychologist Education and participate in group and peer supervision as a member of the broader district school counselling team. You will most likely be collaborating with a number of school communities and colleagues, as well as outside agencies, with the opportunity to use and expand the full range of your skills and expertise as part of a supportive, multidisciplinary team.





School counsellors are provided with regular opportunities to participate in continuing professional development and the NSW Department of Education will support you to complete or maintain your registration with the Psychology Board of Australia. Other benefits include school holiday leave, travel allowances and health and wellbeing perks such as our Fitness Passport program. The department will also cover your indemnity insurance as a psychologist.

The NSW Centre for Effective Reading (NSW CER) is a NSW Department of Education and NSW Health initiative. NSW CER is a state‑wide provision for students referred from eligible government and non‑government schools. NSW CER supports primary aged, rural and remote students with complex reading difficulties who have been accepted for support.

NSW CER has hubslocated in Dubbo, Wagga Wagga and Lindfield with a multidisciplinary team consisting of Speech Pathologists, Psychologists and specialist teachers to provide the best support and intervention for students.

A comprehensive assessment (either face‑to‑face or remotely) is provided by a multidisciplinary team. These results form the personalised interventions for each student. This includes staff training in program implementation, regular monitoring and feedback, personalised learning meetings, direct intervention, targeted professional learning and class‑based strategies.

Reading intervention is provided for 12 months and adjustments to the intervention are made throughout in response to student progress. For more information,



please visit the school website Palm Avenue School
- NSW Centre for Effective Reading.

Specific Selection Criteria

- Experience in counselling using evidence‑based interventions with a demonstrated understanding of the mental health needs of children and young people.
- Experience in the psychological assessment of children and young people, including case formulation and report writing.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate with key stakeholders to improve the learning and wellbeing outcomes of children and young people including students from diverse backgrounds and needs.
- Highly competent in using technology to support the delivery of telepsychology.

Conditions

- Be a registered or provisionally registered psychologist, or eligible for registration with the Psychology Board of Australia.
- Ability and willingness to travel between worksites. Must have a valid unrestricted provisional or full driver’s licence with the ability to drive oneself.
- This position is under the Teachers award (Crown Employees (Teachers in Schools and Related Employees) Salaries and Conditions Award 2024). To be eligible to apply, you must have an unconditional, full approval to teach or have eligibility to apply for an approval to teach. If you do not hold a full approval to teach with the NSW Department of Education, you are required to commence the application process at the same time as you apply for this teaching opportunity.

Palm Avenue School (NSW Centre for Effective Reading) is relocating to Lindfield College in Sydney commencing from 2027. The successful applicant will be based at the CER Lindfield site. Applicants may also request to work from the CER Wagga or Dubbo sites, an a

📌 School Counsellor (Sydney)
🏢 EducationHQ
📍 Sydney