School Counsellor

Overview

School Counsellor - Plumpton House School - 0000B1GG

Location: Sydney Region - Greater West

Advertisement Number A900147718

Number of Positions: 1

Total Remuneration Package: Package valued up to $177,146. Base salary ranges from $98,177 - $156,294 plus leave loading and employer's contribution to superannuation. Base salary rates above the minimum are available dependent on professional experience. Note: there is no automatic progression to $156,294 - SCAC. Access to SCAC is available once a school counsellor has progressed through all salary steps and upon successful application for Advanced Certification level against the NSW School Counselling Service PPF.

Role overview

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 Plumpton House School 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.

Responsibilities

School counsellors provide 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 collaborate 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 receive 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 benefits such as the Fitness Passport program. The department will also cover your indemnity insurance as a psychologist.

Client and school context

Plumpton House School is a school for specific purposes. We cater to the individual needs of 47 students with a range of additional emotional and behaviour support needs, of which 52% are Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. Students across Western Sydney access our program, but predominantly students are locals from the Mount Druitt area. We enrol students from years 3-10 who are selected through the Nirimba School Services Placement Panel process. Application for shared enrolment is made through local schools using the Access Request procedures.

With high staff ratios and targeted resourcing, we are transforming our physical environment and developing skill and expertise to deliver quality, individualised/targeted education programs.

Our teaching and learning programs are evidence-based, with staff trained in trauma-informed practice. Our school-wide Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) supports students to learn about social, emotional and behavioural regulation, and incorporated physical activity for wellbeing.

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.
- 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.

This position commences on the 27 January 2026

Successful applicants will be provided with a Departmental induction program, ongoing professional learning and professional supervision.

Additional information

Find out more about working in the school counselling service. Visit the Department's School Counselling Service pages to discover more about working as a school psychologist or school counsellor in NSW public schools.

Applicants are to include details of their WWCC clearance number as part of this application.

This is a permanent full time position 1.0 FTE (Full-time equivalent).

About the NSW Department of Education

The Department of Education is the largest provider of public education in Australia with responsibility for delivering high-quality public education to two-thirds of the NSW student population. We welcome applications from all ages and genders, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse groups, the LGBTQIA+ community, veterans, refugees and people with disability. If we can make some adjustments to our recruitment/interview process to better enable you to shine, please contact the Diversity and Inclusion Team (dandi@det.nsw.edu.au) or visit NSW Department of Education Diversity and Inclusion.

New merit selection application guidelines for classroom teachers, executives and principals have been introduced to provide greater clarity to applicants and selection panels. The guidelines are located here. To ensure that your application complies with the guideline page limits, your attachments must be in PDF format.

Note: Applications must be lodged electronically. No paper-based application will be accepted

We pay respect to the Traditional Custodians and First Peoples of NSW, and acknowledge their continued connection to their country and culture.

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