The OLG school counselor has many roles within the school such as:

• Implements classroom guidance lessons, small group activities, and solution-focused brief student counseling
• Organizes and hosts monthly workshops for parents and community members
• Leads and manages the positive behavioral and support system, Panther PRIDE
• Creates unique opportunities students to learn about character education
• Provides strategies for students to overcome academic challenges
• Works collaboratively with other members on the Leadership Team to make systemic decisions
• Creates and provides a new student program to assist new students transition to school culture including academics, expectations, study skills, and time management
• Serves as a member on the Crisis Team
• Coordinates with Duke TIP program

How can your school counselor help?

For Students:

• Working well with others
• Feeling good about yourself
• Learning how to make decisions and solve problems
• Managing your feelings (stress, worry, anger, etc.)
• Learning how to control your behavior
• Getting organized
• Dealing with peer pressure and bullying
• Setting and achieving goals
• Planning for high school, college and your career

For Parents:

• Exploring ways to help your child succeed
• Improving parent-child communications
• Providing recommendations for community resources
• Understanding the developmental changes of childhood through adolescence
• Supplying information on a variety of subjects

Students can connect with the counselor through self-referral, at the request of the counselor, parent referral, administrative referral, and teacher or staff referral.

About Panther P.R.I.D.E.
Panther P.R.I.D.E is OLG’s PBIS program. PBIS stands for Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support. One of the foremost advances in school-wide discipline is the emphasis on school-wide systems that include proactive strategies for defining, teaching, and supporting appropriate student behaviors to create positive school environments. A continuum of positive behavior support for all students within a school is implemented in areas including the classroom and non-classroom settings (such as hallways, cafeteria, and restrooms).

At Our Lady of Grace, we will refer to this PBIS implementation as “Panther PRIDE.” PRIDE stands for:

P (Present and prepared)  I will be in school on time every day, ready to learn.

R (Respect) I will carry myself in a way that honors myself, my school, and my community.

I (Integrity) I will do the right thing and make the right choices. I will be honest and trustworthy.

D (Dignity) I will know that each and every person has value and is worthy of great respect.

E (Excellence) I will go above and beyond to do my very best.

Introducing, modeling, and reinforcing positive social behavior is an important step of a student's educational experience. Teaching behavioral expectations and rewarding students for following them is a much more positive approach than waiting for misbehavior to occur before responding. The purpose of school-wide PBIS is to establish a climate in which appropriate behavior is the norm. Classes will earn blue tickets when they show their "PRIDE" and each time they receive a certain amount, they will be rewarded as a whole!