The present study applied a qualitative case study methodology to the educational challenges of three students from a refugee background, in order to identify an appropriate psychological assessment process with which to evaluate their difficulties. Three students who had arrived from Iraq 1–2 years ago (one male and two females; aged 13 and 14 years) were referred by their teachers for psychological assessment as their academic progress was poor, despite remedial education. An educational and developmental psychologist, guided by a steering committee of psychologists and educationists, interviewed each student, his/her parent/s, and teachers independently. Based on referral concerns, hypotheses relating to the cause of educational difficulties were generated and psychological tests and checklists were used with all students and their parents and teachers. The data collected assisted in understanding multiple factors that may affect learning for students who have arrived from a war-torn country, and highlighted the importance of gathering detailed case-specific information to understand each student’s background and current context. Challenges associated with the assessment process were identified. Further, ways in which psychologists and guidance officers, teachers and parents could promote these students’ learning were identified. Implications for schools and policy developers are discussed.

The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in children and adolescents requires school psychologists and counsellors to be informed of evidence-based elements of interventions through which they can tailor their treatment to the individual in a school context. This meta-analysis identified common practice elements within evidence-based trauma interventions for schools. A small to medium effect size was identified in the 10 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) included in this meta-analysis. Within these RCTs, 31 common practice elements were identified, with social skills training, coping skills training, relaxation techniques, psychoeducation, mind-body techniques, group work and creative-expressive techniques correlating with the most effective outcomes. The findings suggest that common practice elements exist across multiple school-based trauma interventions of varying modalities.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of school bullying on school mindfulness and school academic performance through a structural equation model. The study was framed around the correlational design method; school bullying was taken as the independent variable and school mindfulness and school academic performance were used as the dependent variables. The study participants consisted of 156 high school teachers working in three of the schools selected from various school districts by means of the maximum variation sampling method. The data were collected via the School Bullying Scale (Tintorer, 2004), the School Mindfulness Scale (Hoy, Gage, & Tarter, 2006), and the average scores on the Higher Education Transition exam for each school. Path analysis was conducted to enable associating measurement errors in both latent and observed variables. Our study findings show that school bullying negatively affects school mindfulness and academic performance and that school mindfulness positively affects academic performance. In addition, the findings reveal that verbal bullying, consisting of behaviours such as harassing phone calls, taking someone’s money or belongings by force, intimidating actions with violent threats, name calling, racist expressions and teasing, swearing, lying to others or insulting them, is more frequently observed than other bullying types.

Despite the fact that many research studies (Canon & Lipscomb, 2011; Jimerson, 2001a, 2001b, 2004; Martin, 2011) have shown that grade repetition offers few benefits to students, it continues to be used as an early intervention practice to address students’ low levels of readiness for school or early school failure. The study contributes to the evidence-based research on grade repetition in Australian schools by drawing on, and analysing, the most recent data on grade repetition from Queensland’s state education department, the Department of Education and Training. Descriptive statistics and relative risk ratio, used to analyse the data, found that boys aged 5 years are overrepresented in grade repetition in the first year of schooling, ‘Prep’, in Queensland state schools. Possible reasons for the disproportionate overrepresentation of boys aged 5 years repeated in Prep are discussed, together with recommendations for future policy and practice.

This applied experimental research tested the effectiveness of a universal, student-focused intervention (‘Memory Mates’), specifically focused on supporting students to use attention and working memory strategies within academic contexts, unlike computer-based programs. Memory Mates is presented in the form of icons and explanations, with the strategies embedded within the classroom. Analyses compared the impact of the intervention over 8 months in three schools with three control schools, comprising 13 Year 4 primary school classes. The intervention group students showed a significant improvement in mathematics and spelling; however, there was no differential effect on reading comprehension or academic engagement. Based on the present results, it is contended that implementing Memory Mates within classroom contexts demonstrated promising potential as a new approach to supporting academic progress.

Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS™) is a tested strategy for improving communication and climate in hospitals. It is a promising but untested tool among school-based mental health teams. We examined the psychometric properties of the TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ) and Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire (T-TAQ) among 167 school mental health team members. Team members worked for one of five agencies in 33 K-8 urban public schools. Exploratory factor analyses and descriptive data are presented. For both the T-TPQ and T-TAQ, a unitary factor structure best fit the data for this sample. The T-TPQ and T-TAQ were not significantly correlated with one another and total scores did not significantly differ by staff role. Agencies differed in T-TAQ results, and one agency had lower T-TAQ total scores relative to other agencies. Results suggest that the factor structures are different among school mental health teams than among other healthcare providers.

Resilience is a crucial personal characteristic of school counsellors to protect and maintain their wellbeing against the effects of occupational stress factors in school settings. However, there has been a lack of research investigating school counsellors’ resilience in Turkey. Therefore, this study aims to explore the resilience of school counsellors working in schools with at-risk students in terms of stress and protective factors. The study was conducted using a qualitative research method with a phenomenological approach. The data were collected through semistructured interviews from 10 school counsellors working in schools with at-risk students. The data analysis was carried out with an inductive approach using an NVivo 11 software package program. The analysis revealed a variety of findings, both positive and negative, regarding the resilience of school counsellors. In this scope, three interrelated themes emerged as ‘Occupational Stressors’, ‘Personal Factors: Strength versus Vulnerability’, and ‘Positive and Negative Results: Happiness and Satisfaction versus Helplessness and Burnout’. The results show that school counsellors working in schools with at-risk students experience a variety of occupational stresses and that their experience of happiness and satisfaction, or helplessness and burnout, depends on a level of strengths or weaknesses with reference to personal factors.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of counselling self-efficacy, trait anxiety and cognitive flexibility in predicting job satisfaction of school counsellors. The study was conducted according to a correlational research design. The sample group consisted of 99 female and 77 male school counsellors voluntarily participating in the study. Data collection tools included the Personal Information Form, Job Satisfaction Scale, Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scale, Trait Anxiety Inventory and Cognitive Flexibility Inventory. The data were analysed with Pearson product-moment correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. According to the research findings, the job satisfaction of school counsellors was identified to have moderate significant correlations with counselling self-efficacy, trait anxiety and cognitive flexibility. Counselling self-efficacy and trait anxiety were each concluded to be significant predictors of job satisfaction. Finally, cognitive flexibility was found not to be a significant predictor of job satisfaction. The results are interpreted and discussed in accordance with the relevant literature.

This study examined Turkish school counsellors’ (SCs) ratings of the importance of factors in deciding to report students’ risk-taking behaviours to school administrators (SAs). A sample of Turkish SCs (N = 252) were surveyed. Most and least important factors were determined. Group differences in terms of gender, school level of employment, and attending mandatory counselling ethics training were investigated. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used in group comparisons. ‘Protecting the student’ was rated as the most important factor, and ‘Gender of the student’ was the least important factor. Statistically significant group differences with respect to gender, school level of employment, and attending mandatory counselling ethics training were identified. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

This article presents the results of an action-research project. The project consisted of a reflection process involving a year-long collaboration between a teacher, a teaching assistant and a speech therapist in a special education school, together with two researchers acting as counsellors. The reflection process sought to promote changes in the participants’ approaches to working on communication and language in the classroom. This article sets out to identify and describe the processes of change in the three teaching professionals’ conceptions of communication and language teaching and learning, and about their teaching role. The collaborative counselling lasted 32 weeks and consisted of a total of nine group counselling (GC) sessions. All of the nine GC sessions were transcribed in order to analyse the changes in the teaching professionals’ discourse. The ATLAS.ti 7.0 program was then used to select speech quotations and to group them into thematic clusters based on content analysis. The results indicate that the teaching professionals’ conceptions subtly changed during the collaborative counselling process; specifically, their conceptions about how to develop communication and language, classroom interaction, the educator’s role, organisation of context and curriculum planning.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has substantial support in adult populations but less among adolescents. To date, very little research has evaluated whether it can be delivered in a highly accessible school context. This study examined a 6-hour, weekly ACT-informed school-based group intervention for adolescent girls, focusing on anxiety, depression and building psychological flexibility. Participants (N = 10) who completed the intervention experienced significantly lowered levels of anxiety and increased psychological flexibility, with postintervention scores for all variables trending in the expected directions. Findings provide preliminary support for the efficacy of the intervention and encourages further evaluation of ACT delivered in schools.

This article describes an intervention program to improve writing skills, intended to be a useful tool for everyday remedial work in primary school. The design was based on an initial review of the approaches most often used for writing intervention and identification of the main concerns for such intervention; namely, the use of direct and explicit instructions, the importance of feedback, recommended levels of intervention, the main content to consider, and use of motivating activities to get the student engaged or even to enjoy the intervention. All these considerations guided decision making about the appropriate features that would ensure an effective intervention in children with general and specific writing difficulties. The intervention program follows evidence-based practice strategies and may be useful for educational professionals in primary school, acknowledging that the program needs to be experimentally evaluated.

The professional experience of school counsellors in training in Australia is subject to different supervisor-supervisee relationships and school settings. The current study explored the first-year New South Wales school counsellor in training professional experience via an adapted qualitative content and framework analysis approach. Participants were students undertaking their first professional experience as part of the Master of Teaching (School Counselling) at the University of Sydney. The most common descriptive reflections explored professional psychological learning, followed by system- and process-related knowledge of the school setting. Emergent themes highlighted that professional experience prepared students for the role, which varied based on supervisor and school setting, and helped the students form professional identities via observing rich ethical and professional practice. Future professional experiences may be enriched with explicit reflections, peer-to-peer learning and support to foster working supervisor-supervisee relationships.