The value and importance of mental health and resilience in students is finally being realised worldwide, but with this growth of support and education on mental health, there is the problem of schools and the department of education letting the organisation of school councillors become less noticed and cared about.

As outlined by the government's 2026-2028 School Counselling Service, they want schools with over 1000 students (a criteria Northmead not only meets but is confirmed by their own schools' infrastructure description of Northmead) as having at least 1.2 FTEs.

 Many students in every year group meet with the school counsellors and I have heard from a large majority of students that the time between putting in a request to meet, and the actual first meeting is 2 weeks or more and by that time their emotions about the situation have changed, or they are then unable to see the counsellor enough due to them having too much work and not enough hours and job security.

This is not a fault of the school, department or counsellors, but rather something that needs to be worked on and adjusted to allow for better flow and an increased number of students getting these vital services in a safe, trustful environment.

That is why the goal of this petition is as follows:

(1) Provide greater online clarity of counsellor hours for future aspiring students and students unable to ask in person by adding the days of each counsellor as other DOE schools do.

(2) Seriously discuss and research into the possibility of greater training for teachers (goal set and requested from the NSW teacher federation), training for counsellors and/or the addition of a new counsellor or discussion into increased days with non FTE.

(3) Increase the number of students that can be supported and reduce the time waiting between the request and the first meeting.

(4) Discuss other mental health and wellbeing strategies and policies our school can enact.