School Counsellor

Package Description

Required for: September 2025

Location: Vincent Square - Westminster Under School

Contract: full-time (term-time only), permanent

Ideally, we would like this role to be five days a week but are willing to consider candidates who could do four days a week.

Salary: £60,000 per annum.

The School also offers a range of benefits, including:

 - free school lunches

 - private medical insurance (opt-in)

 - free access to the School’s leisure facilities, including a fitness gym (restricted hours)

 - access the School’s Cycle to Work Scheme and season ticket loans following completion of our standard probation period.

The deadline for applications is 09:00 on Monday 3rd March 2025. Interview will take place w/c 10th March 2025.

Job Introduction

The Counselling Service is an important pillar of the School’s support of pupil welfare through the provision of both counselling and psychotherapeutic services. The School Counsellor works with young people with a range of emotional and behavioural difficulties, and provides supportive counselling to pupils, as well as undertakes more complex assessment and treatment of pupils’ mental health difficulties. Where necessary or more appropriate, the School Counsellor will refer pupils to specialist agencies, such as Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) or a hospital.

The Counsellor works with all members of staff to support the wellbeing of pupils. In particular, it is essential for the School Counsellor to forge strong relationships with the Assistant Master (Pastoral) and the Heads of Year offering support and advice: these relationships are key to identifying pupils who would benefit from engaging with the Counselling Service, as well as for the ongoing support of pupils, and to discuss wider trends regarding mental health and welfare of pupils across the school and within the national and global context Further to this, there are strong links with the Learning Development Department so as to ensure that those pupils who have access arrangements and neurodiverse profiles are able to be supported as effectively as possible.

The School Counsellor will attend the in-service training of staff with regard to child protection, aspects of pastoral care, classroom management, interpersonal skills and other training as requested by the Master and other staff.

Main Responsibilities

The School Counsellor must be a qualified child and adolescent counsellor, or psychotherapist registered with an appropriate professional body. They will have experience of providing formal assessment, treatment and management of young people with a range of mental health difficulties. They will understand multiple theoretical backgrounds and employ methods based upon evidence of efficacy.

The School Counsellor is expected to work in a confidential manner, except where a child’s safety might be in risk. The expectation of confidentiality would fall both within an existing professional code of ethics and also the School’s own policies and conditions of service.

The School Counsellor is line-managed by the Assistant Master (Pastoral) with whom there will be weekly meetings, and is ultimately accountable to the Master.

The Counselling Service

• Be responsible for the provision of a counselling and psychotherapy service for pupils – this includes formal one-to-one sessions, and informal drop-in sessions open to all pupils.
• Manage and record the intake of referrals, assessing needs of the individuals and making an informed clinical judgment on how urgently they need to be seen, referring pupils on to external specialist services where appropriate.
• Ensure the maintenance of appropriate case records. (These will be confidential to the counsellor, but, in exceptional circumstances and with full consultation, taking into account ethical and legal issues as well as the professional code of ethics and practice of the counsellors, may be evidence in any enquiry or legal proceedings as they affect the School. In these exceptional circumstances these records may be requested only by the Master having due regard to what is in the best interests of the child[ren] concerned).
• Undertake detailed assessments of pupils’ mental states and offer highly-skilled interventions using appropriate therapeutic modalities.
• Provide group interventions when multiple pupils are involved, such as in child-on-child incidents or group dynamic challenges. These can include working with entire forms, year groups, or the broader school community through assemblies and year group sessions.
• Support the Learning Development Department in the running of nurture groups.
• Provide emergency support for staff: should ongoing personal counselling be required, then providing assistance in finding a suitable source of external help beyond the School.
• Develop the Counselling Service, ensuring it is an accessible service for pupils that contributes to the School’s wider culture and ethos around pupil wellbeing.  
• Undertake other responsibilities as determined by the Master following consultation, and any other duties as may be reasonably required by the Senior Management Team (SMT).

Collaborative working

• Liaise with members of staff, including SMT, Form Tutors and Heads of Year.
• Work with parents of pupils and other members of their family, where appropriate.
• Liaise with and support internal staff and external agencies, where appropriate.
• Collaborate and liaise where required, especially with feeder schools and senior schools at points of transition.

Regulatory requirements including safeguarding

• Work closely with the Assistant Master (Pastoral) and the Safeguarding Team where appropriate. Be responsible for maintaining ethical standards in counselling practice and in conjunction with the School’s policies and as they refer to Safeguarding.
• Undertake risk assessment and risk management of pupils, as well as provide both general and specialist advice to staff and other professionals on aspects of risk assessment, management and safeguarding.
• Provide input into School policies as coordinated by the Assistant Master (Pastoral).
• Produce an annual report with statistical analysis on counselling and issues arising at Westminster Under School.
• Play a full part in the life of the School community, supporting its values and ethos, and encouraging staff and pupils to follow this example.
• Promote the School and its policies actively.
• Represent the School at relevant internal events e.g. Open Days.

Professional development and supervision

• Keep up to date with current national mental health policies, guidelines and initiatives, as well as trends and patterns emerging amongst the adolescent population and that might impact upon the pupils.
• Continue personal professional development as agreed, including attending training sessions or training courses, including when these may be outside duty days.
• Obtain professional external supervision on a fortnightly basis.

Hours of Work

Normal hours of employment will cover School opening times between Monday to Friday including some evenings and occasional Saturday mornings in exceptional circumstances (e.g. Open Days). Actual work times will be as agreed with the Assistant Master (Pastoral).

Ideally, we would like this role to be five days a week but are willing to consider candidates who could do four days a week.

The Ideal Candidate

Please refer to the below (attached) person specification.

Equal Opportunities

We are an equal opportunities employer. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex or sexual orientation.

Safeguarding and Child Protection

Westminster Under School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Applicants must be willing to undergo child protection screening appropriate to the post, including checks with past employers and the Disclosure and Barring Service.

About The School

Working at Westminster Under School

Westminster Under School is a busy, purposeful and vibrant place to be and an excellent workplace. The community is made up of 292 pupils, 43 teaching staff and 50 support staff.

Westminster Under School is a friendly and welcoming place to work. There is a real sense of community here and staff members quickly become part of the rhythm of life, both inside and outside the classroom. Social events are regular and varied, with plenty of opportunity to socialise outside working hours. Support staff as much as teaching staff are encouraged to embrace the School’s day-to-day activities, whether that be attending a concert or a sports fixture.

At Westminster we will always select the best candidate for every position. We do know, however, that we can only truly choose the best person on every occasion if a broad and diverse pool of candidates see the job advertised and are encouraged to apply.

As such, we continue to work on how our job roles are encountered, and particularly welcome applications from groups who have traditionally been underrepresented here.

Westminster Under School is for everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic. We hope you are encouraged to apply.

The School

Westminster Under School is a happy, ambitious, nurturing and inspiring world-class preparatory education for seven to 13 year olds. Pupils who love to learn are offered a supportive, dynamic and inspirational environment to fuel their curiosity. 

Located in the heart of London, the School overlooks the beautiful school playing fields in Vincent Square and is just a few moments’ walk from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. It is closely connected to Westminster School; in 1943, Westminster expanded its educational scope by forming the Under School, and the two schools share the same Governing Body and the same ethos of a liberal education. 

Westminster Under School's curriculum is broad and diverse, aiming to foster a sense of wonder and inquisitiveness in children and encourage independent thought. The teaching programme goes above and beyond the National Curriculum and teachers are not tightly bound by syllabus. Pupils are taught a wide range of subjects by expert teachers who embrace opportunities for growth and promote diverse thinking, and who encourage them to ask questions about the world around them. 

While the School's standard of our education is of the highest quality, the School’s focus is not only on academic achievement. Westminster pupils receive a full and rounded education that includes sport, the arts and many opportunities to engage in community outreach; pupils frequently take part in concerts, plays and in both internal and external competitions, and the School hosts festivals and events throughout the year. Like its older counterpart, Westminster Under School is fully committed to each pupil’s spiritual, moral, emotional and physical development and wellbeing – with a particular emphasis on drawing out individual talent wherever it lies – and to prepare young people for fulfilled private and public lives.

From September 2026, Westminster Under School will have opened its brand new pre-prep for girls and boys at 4+ and girls will have joined boys in Years 3 and 7, at the 7+ and 11+ entry points. By 2030, with the introduction of girls into Year 9 at Westminster School in 2028, all year groups across the two schools, from ages four to 18, will be fully co-educational, reflecting the School’s dedication to inclusivity and excellence.