How to advocate and develop the counsellor role

When I began working with our senior leadership team (SLT) to evaluate the state of counselling in our school, it was clear that the programme had been historically undervalued. At one point, one counsellor was responsible for two campuses and for the socio-emotional, academic and career needs of hundreds of students. This is an unsustainable model that positioned counselling as a reactive, administrative service rather than a foundational component of student well-being and achievement.

At the same time, our school operates in a unique cultural landscape:

• Parents heavily prioritise medicine, engineering and accounting courses.
• Career classes were viewed as “nice-to-have”.
• Most students were pressured to complete both A levels and the Cambodian National Grade 12 Exam.
• In the past three years, more than 70 per cent of graduates study abroad, requiring far more specialised planning and guidance than our existing model provided.

With these realities in mind, I worked with the SLT to strategically elevate the role of counselling from a peripheral service to an essential, curriculum-integrated department.

This resource outlines how we did it and how other counsellors and leaders in similar contexts can do the same. 

1. Vertical alignment and curriculum integration (grade 6 to 12)

The challenge: Career lessons were available only from grades 9 to 12, which is far too late for students who were expected to make informed IGCSE choices in grade 8.

Leadership actions

• Advocated to SLT for career and well-being classes to start in grade 6.
• Integrated these classes into the official timetable, elevating them to “core subject” status.
• Ensured resources and lesson materials were organised and accessible through Google Classroom for each grade level.
• Aligned subject teachers and middle leaders to treat careers and well-being as part of the whole-school teaching mission.

Impact

• Students enter high school (grade 9) with a foundational understanding of their strengths and interests, reducing anxiety during the IGCSE subject selection process.
• Counsellors became visible, consistent figures rather than ad-hoc advisers.
• The programme shifted purely “university application processing” to holistic character development, soft skill acquisition and early career exploration.

Advice for counsellors and leaders

• Embed counselling into the timetable – visibility builds legitimacy.
• Begin career exploration early so decision points feel natural, not crisis-driven.
• Use digital platforms to sustain continuity, even during counsellor transitions.

2. Strategic resourcing: making the case for manpower investment

The challenge: Budget constraints made it challenging to secure additional non-teaching staff.

Leadership actions

• Reframed the counsellor role as specialised teaching staff.
• Set apart socio-emotional counsellors from career counsellors.
• Proposed and secured two career counsellors changing their titles to holistic development coordinators (HDCs). One per campus.
• Designed job roles that integrated:
  • Career and well-being teaching
  • Career coaching
  • University and community engagement
• Built sustainable schedules that included protected time for planning, professional development and self-care (two days weekly).

Impact

• Eliminated the bottleneck of one overburdened counsellor.
• Increased student access to consistent support.
• Reduced crises as counsellors could shift to proactive, data-informed guidance.

Advice for counsellors and leaders

• When proposing staffing, link roles to measurable school outcomes (acceptance rates, parent satisfaction, well-being data).
• Provide counsellors with planning time to avoid burnout; advocacy must be holistic.
• Position counselling as a profession, not a miscellaneous support function.

3. Targeted personal coaching for key transition years

The challenge: Generalised “open counselling hours” were inefficient and underused.

Leadership actions

• Prioritised structured coaching for grades 8, 11 and 12:
  • Grade 8: IGCSE subject selection
  • Grade 11: A level pathways and portfolio development
  • Grade 12: University applications, scholarships, transition planning
• SLT embedded specific time slots into each HDC’s weekly schedule for mandatory coaching sessions.

Impact

• Every student at a major decision point receives personalised guidance.
• Students choosing IGCSEs do so with confidence, reducing wrong subject withdrawals.
• Grade 12 students produce stronger university applications with fewer last-minute crises.

Advice for counsellors and leaders

• Prioritise high-stakes years and manage counsellor bandwidth strategically.
• Build a data trail (subject choices, personality profiles, university destinations).
• Make coaching non-optional to ensure equity of access.

4. Building a support ecosystem: teachers, parents and students

A. Career workshops for parents and students

• Reinvented career events as interactive workshops rather than announcements.
• Included explicit discussions on:
  • Graduation requirements
  • International and local pathways

B. Subject fairs with teacher advocacy

• Transformed subject choice into a community experience.
• Teachers produced short promotional videos explaining career connections for each subject.

C. Pathway videos for dual curriculum clarity

Created school-produced videos explaining:

• Cambridge pathways
• National Programme pathways
• Combined graduation requirements
• How they intersect (valuable for multilingual parents)

D. Peer mentorship programme

• Trained grade 9 to 10 mentors to support grade 8 students.
• Normalised student voice and experience sharing.

Advice for counsellors and leaders

• Involve teachers: they lend credibility to subject-career alignment.
• Use video resources to scale impact across multiple campuses.
• Leverage senior students as co-educators. Peers often carry more influence.

5. Strengthening external networks: university visits and alumni relations

Actions led with SLT support

• Coordinated with partner universities and agencies for regular campus visits.
• Created alumni panels and pathway talks.
• Embedded university exposure into the annual school calendar.

Impact

• Students gain early visibility of global options.
• Families become better informed about diversified pathways, reducing “prestige pressure.”
• Alumni reconnect and mentor current students.

6. Leadership synergy: uniting the international and national programmes

The challenge: the dual curriculum system often led to conflicting expectations, schedules and parental confusion.

Leadership actions

• Collaborated on regular three-way meetings: international programme leaders, national programme leaders and holistic development coordinators.
• Ensured counsellors voiced student workload concerns based on real coaching data.
• Worked to establish shared communication protocols so students no longer received contradictory guidance.

Impact

• Students experience a more coherent academic journey.
• Parents receive consistent messaging, improving trust.
• Counsellors finally operate as system leaders, not isolated advisers.

Advice for counsellors and leaders

• Bring counsellors into every meeting where pathways, subjects or assessment schedules are discussed.
• Encourage counsellors to advocate; data gives them a credible voice.
• Model unity from the top – collaboration trickles down.