In the HBHS Guidance Department, we continue to work alongside students and staff, receiving referrals via email and phone as well as from concerned staff members, parents, caregivers, outside agencies, students friends and students themselves.

At the end of 2022, we farewelled Ms Robin Clarke, who moved to a full time guidance role at HGHS. We would like to thank Ms Clarke for her commitment to the HBHS Guidance Department over the past three years. As a highly experienced counsellor and supervisor, Ms Clarke is known for her kindness and calm manner - she will be missed and we wish her all the best.

In 2023, Mrs Bower graduated, having completed a Certificate in Professional Supervision. This learning has equipped Mrs Bower for mentoring, in particular, supervising student counsellors on placement at HBHS.

Miss Jess Weller is in her second year at HBHS and has fitted in well into our collaborative wider pastoral care team based down in the Student Services building. In addition to supporting students in a guidance role, Miss Weller joined a group of Year 10 students on the Spirit of Adventure in February and has also been involved in developing our Squash programme on Thursday afternoons as well as coaching our school squash team to 5th place at the NZSS Nationals.

For the second year in a row, we have been lucky to have an experienced drug and alcohol counsellor from Youth Intact - Mr Cory Murray, who is on site at HBHS once a week. Cory has previously worked in adolescent mental health and we have enjoyed having him as part of our team. We are looking forward to this invaluable service continuing in 2024.

This year we welcomed a fantastic student counsellor to our team - Ms Merryn Lala. Ms Lala is a qualified teacher at Northern Health School (NHS) who is studying a Masters of Counselling with Massey University. Ms Lala has fitted into our Guidance team, bringing with her a bubbly personality and an ability to authentically connect with students. For 2024, we have secured two student counsellors and have a contract with Wise Group to provide a health clinician and youth mentor one day a week.

The start of 2023 was exciting with Year 13s away at Leadership Camp which was a huge success. Miss Weller facilitated workshops regarding how senior students can support their own wellbeing in their final year at secondary school. It was great to get feedback from students that have been at HBHS for five years and understand the highlights and challenges of their time here. One of the highlights was that students reflected on their time at HBHS as "being a part of a brotherhood". Students were reminded of all the support systems available to them - both inside and outside of school.

Miss Weller and Mrs Bower have attended a variety of professional development opportunities this year including webinars and in-person professional development on Trauma, Vaping, Student Engagement, Attendance and Pornography. They are looking forward to heading to Palmerston North for the Super 8 Guidance Counsellors Conference before the end of the year. HBHS hosts termly meetings for the Waikato School Guidance Counsellors. These meetings are an extremely valuable connection point for Guidance Counsellors from a variety of schools in the region to connect and discuss what is impacting our young people and how best to support them.

The HBHS Guidance Team takes as many opportunities as possible to get out and about in the school. In Term 1, Mrs Bower presented to new teaching staff, regarding guidance referral processes and services and in collaboration with Ministry of Education psychologist Alison Basel, presented to staff about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In Term 3, Miss Weller presented to staff regarding teacher wellbeing at a time in the academic year where teachers are the busiest and unlikely to prioritise their wellbeing due to work related stress. Miss Weller let staff know that external support is available to them via EAP, which can provide HBHS staff members with funded counselling services. In November, Mrs Bower and Miss Weller ran a workshop at the Year 9 ALP (Advanced Learning Programme) Retreat at Waikato University. The aim of this workshop is to have positive conversations with students about academic pressure, how to understand the developing adolescent brain and the life stage they are in regarding their identity so they can better navigate their time at high school and more effectively support their general wellbeing.

With such a large community that is HBHS, the counsellors rely on many outside agencies to provide care for our community members. Therefore we are regularly referring students to Ngaa Ringa Awhina for the assessment of more serious mental health challenges which are on occasion, supported by ICAMHS. At times we recommend that parents take their sons to their GP, for mental health screening, general health checks and referrals to external counselling. We can directly refer students to PHO counselling, which supports students with as many as four funded sessions. Where there are concerns for a student's care and protection, we rely on Oranga Tamariki and liaise with the Interim Safety Response Team (ISR) which is a multi-agency intervention that aims to prevent family violence. We use an array of other services including Diversity Counselling, which has counsellors from a range of ethnic backgrounds who speak a variety of languages. We would like to say a huge thank-you to the McKenzie Trust, that continues to support HBHS students in accessing what they need to thrive in an educational setting when they and their families are met with financial barriers.

As educational professionals, the Guidance Team are always keen to get out and about at HBHS, to support healthy conversations about wellbeing and mental health in order to create a supportive space for students to come to if and when they need it.

We wish you and your family a very safe and Merry Christmas!

Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa (Let us keep close together, not far apart).