In a world where the only constant is change, schools are faced with the need to adapt creatively to changing societal demands, parental expectations, and children with increasingly diverse needs. Lasting and effective change can only occur with systemic and organisational change, and this essay argues that school-based psychologists are an invaluable, but potentially overlooked, resource in driving and supporting effective, evidence-supported, organisational change in schools. It is suggested that this can occur best when school-based psychologists are able to move away from direct service models that treat individual children to a systemic model that supports whole-school change.

Attendance at overnight school camp is an integral component of the Australian educational landscape. However, some students are reluctant to attend camp, while others refuse to attend at all. School psychologists play an important part in supporting these students and their families, and teachers. While much is published about general school refusal, there is surprisingly little attention given to the specific management of school camp refusal and reluctance. This article summarises the contribution of the related theoretical areas of childhood anxiety, school refusal, and homesickness. It then outlines, through a case study example, a management approach for school psychologists, from presentation of the problem to assessment, through to informed intervention, including a suite of strategies to support the student, parents and teachers, who have duty of care during camps.

Clinical supervision is an essential feature of high-quality psychological practice. However, it has been under-investigated within the field of school psychology and particularly in Australia. An overview of the field of school psychology, its clinical supervision, and its use by school psychologists is provided. Past literature has suggested inadequate engagement with supervision among these practitioners. In order to examine current work contexts and supervision experiences, 77 school psychologists were surveyed. Engagement in supervision appears to have markedly increased since the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) Continuing Professional Development mandates in 2010. However, the data indicated that further organisational and policy support of school psychologists is warranted.

In Australia, policies such as the Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care initiative have been the impetus for improved collaboration between medical practitioners and psychologists in general. However, policies that promote collaboration between school psychologists and community mental health, health, justice and/or human services professionals are yet to occur. This is despite known benefits arising from integrated service delivery to people with complex needs, including young people. School psychologists are an integral part of the service mix and are in an excellent position to promote collaborative practices and to assist students and families to navigate and access school-based and community-based support. This study, conducted in Queensland, Australia, investigated school psychologists’, guidance officers’ and school counsellors’ current and preferred levels of collaboration, their perceptions of the drivers and barriers to collaborative practices, and their views on how collaborative practices affect students. Results revealed that participants engaged more fully in within-school collaboration than collaboration with professionals and agencies outside of the school; they had a desire to collaborate more fully both internally and externally; and that concerns regarding confidentiality, time restrictions, and lack of access to appropriate services can sometimes make collaboration and information sharing difficult. Implications for school psychological practice are discussed.

The role of affective and cognitive factors in learning have long been recognised as imperative determinants of the learning process. Maladaptive styles with which we perceive and explain accomplishments and failures in achievement outcomes have an important motivational impact upon approach and avoidance behaviours towards academic tasks. Interventions to change these maladaptive styles are well established, although they stand to gain via addition of cognitive behavioural therapy components. A pilot study attribution retraining intervention was implemented with eight secondary school students, and their results on academic performance, self-concept, and attributional styles were compared to a control group. With significant gains in some specific academic domains, the attributional retraining program is being substantiated for effective use within secondary schools. Implications suggest that this could be an effective tool to retrain students’ attributions, with some gains, as the reattribution technique is revisited and reinvigorated.

This research explored how psychologists working in the Victorian secondary state school system construct meaning around ethical practice. The specific aims of the research were to examine psychologists understanding of ethics in practice within schools and to explore challenges they faced regarding professional ethics when working in the education system. A qualitative design was adopted to explore the topic. Five psychologists working in the Victorian state education system were interviewed, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. Two themes presented from the transcripts: legalities and ethics and varied peer support. The psychologists reported having to confront often and repeated ethical challenges, but despite this, positioned themselves as ethical practitioners. Ethical practice was portrayed as a complex construct that is always socially and politically embedded. Subsequently, discussion on the topic should extend beyond the sole practitioner. The research provides future direction for policy development and workplace procedures, including access to professional supervision.

Many youth participate in extracurricular activities, and research has linked activity participation with school engagement and academic success. Social-ecological theory suggests that the social contexts of different types of extracurricular activities may differentially affect student outcomes. Yet, there is scant research examining the relation between various extracurricular activities and student outcomes. The current study seeks to address this gap by exploring how participation in three activities (sports, clubs, and arts), and combinations of these activities are associated with perceptions of school climate, using multilevel modelling. Participants included 15,004 high school students from 28 schools across 11 states in the United States. Findings suggest that students involved in extracurricular activities have more favourable perceptions of social-emotional security, adult support, student support, and school connectedness. However, these perceptions vary by activity type and combination, and do not appear to have a stacked effect in which involvement in more activities yields more favourable outcomes. We conclude that extracurricular activity participation may serve as a mechanism to promote a positive school climate. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

As social media use is rising among adolescents, the issue of whether this use leads to positive or negative outcomes warrants greater understanding. This article critically reviews the literature related to this important topic. Specifically, we examine how social media use affects social connectedness in terms of three elements of adolescent development: sense of belonging, psychosocial wellbeing, and identity development and processes. Mixed findings are reported regarding the role that social media plays in fostering social connectedness, which suggests that young people may experience both positive and negative psychological outcomes. As a result, this article argues that online tools create a paradox for social connectedness. On one hand, they elevate the ease in which individuals may form and create online groups and communities, but on the other, they can create a source of alienation and ostracism. This article contributes to ongoing discourse in the area of educational and developmental psychology, and has implications for researchers and practitioners working with adolescents.

This article reports on a qualitative study aimed to map the professional practice of psychologists working in schools in Victoria, Australia. A review of school psychology research literature conceptualised seven domains that were used as a lens for understanding how the professional practice of psychology was enacted in schools. The domains were placed in a hierarchy to illustrate the ecological aspect of professional practice, drawing on the work of Altman (1987) and Brofenbrenner (1977). The influence of each of these domains in shaping professional practice was understood to be mediated by the degree of control (Oakland & Cunningham, 1998) psychologists were able to garner in negotiating how their psychological services were delivered to schools. Snapshots of the practice of psychologists nominated as ‘effective’ practitioners by senior administrators identified a number of contextual barriers and facilitators across the profession that are used to inform directions for reform. The authors argue for the development of alternative models that involve collaborative actions and multiple systems — combining professional efforts to serve students and families with multiple and complex needs.

The role of educational (school) psychologists around the world is often debated, and usually involves the discussion of many key functions. Traditionally, the role has focused on the importance of cognitive assessment; however, increasingly this role is gradually being marginalised in favour of other more generic and systemic activities, such as research. This article will outline the importance of research in the role of educational psychologists, and will consider how this role can be fostered across the profession in order to meet the demands of the educational marketplace, thus ensuring that the profession of educational psychology will survive well into the 21st century. Implications for the organisation of psychological services are also discussed, as well as implications for the training of educational psychologists.

This article investigates the degree to which a consistent understanding of what psychologists do is present in a group of teachers and parents, and compares this with the job functions reported by psychologists themselves. Research on the role of school psychologists has focused on the perceptions of school staff in relation to ideal services, and has given little acknowledgment to the expectations of other clients of school psychologists, such as parents. Common understanding of the range and focus of services available from school psychologists would facilitate effective and appropriate referrals. Services are considered according to models of service delivery from systemic service to an individual case-based model. The current study involved 138 school psychologists, 107 parents, and 100 teachers from government, Catholic, and independent schools across Melbourne, Australia. Participants completed a number of measures, and significant differences between groups were found on 20 of the 30 items relating to school psychologists’ responsibilities (p < .001). Associations were also established between student–psychologist ratios and the work practices of school psychologists, specifically the frequency with which assessment (r = .35, p < .001) and counselling (r =−.25, p < .01) tasks were undertaken. It is concluded that service delivery would benefit by enhancing community understanding of the work of school psychologists. Analysis of work practices reflects that demand for assessment services tends to limit the development of systemic and preventative practices in the work of school psychologists.

This study investigated the conflicting interests of the different client groups of Victorian school psychologists. A questionnaire on the role of the school psychologist was constructed and administered to 97 Victorian State school staff from two primary schools and two secondary schools. Fifteen role activities undertaken by psychologists were analysed according to their perceived importance, effectiveness and desirability. Traditional role activities were compared with innovative role activities that were being encouraged by Victorian Government policy. School staff perceived traditional role activities as significantly more important, effectively undertaken and more desired than innovative role activities. Perceptions of the effectiveness of the school psychologist were affected by the position that responding staff held within schools. Furthermore, the more frequently the reported interaction between psychologists and service users occurred, the more school psychologists were perceived as effective. Primary school staff differed from secondary school staff in their perceptions of desired role activities. The paper concludes with a discussion of the management of different client needs, communication with school staff about role discrepancies, and future directions.