Job Summary

Job Title: School Counselor

Location: Mumbai

Employment Type: Full-time, 6 days a week, 7 am to 3 pm (with two-term breaks)

Reporting to: Associate Lead, Social Emotional Learning

Apni Shala was co-founded in 2013 with a vision to build social and emotional competencies among individuals to constructively engage with society and have a harmonious coexistence. Our approach to Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is informed by the Collaborative of Academic Social and Emotional Learning Framework (CASEL, USA), Narrative Practices, Diversity Inclusion, Constructivist Learning Theory, and Mindfulness. The foundation is funded by grants and donations from individuals and institutions.

To know more about our work, watch The Apni Shala Story.

Requirements

- Deep commitment to fostering student wellbeing through an integrated, whole-school approach alongside targeted counseling support.
- Ability to adapt and respond to difficult and uncertain circumstances
- Spirit of collaboration and trust in working with and supporting a team
- Inclination and openness to continuous learning, feedback and growth
- Ability to engage with and solve for inequity and exclusion with compassion
- Commitment to one's own social emotional development and healing
- Ability and willingness to step in for responsibilities above and beyond the assigned role
- Interest in working with government / low-income schools

Responsibilities

- The School Counselor will work along with teachers and the wider school team to identify student needs and ensure all students receive holistic wellbeing support.
- The role involves observing students in classroom spaces, facilitating weekly SEL sessions, conducting individual and group counseling, and supporting the ongoing development and revision of curricular documents.
- The counselor will also conduct caregiver education, engage in their own professional development, and support general school requirements as part of the collective team.
- Collaborate with teachers and management to develop a school counseling program with a focus on the social-emotional development of children.
- Conduct classroom observations to identify emerging social, emotional, and developmental needs of students and design timely responses.
- Conduct one-to-one or group counseling sessions with students to work on their social-emotional challenges.
- Working with students experiencing atypical development.
- Coaching teachers to work with students having differential needs.
- Research, create and encourage SEL school-wide and classroom-wide practices.
- Encourage developmental SEL strategies and educate team around the same.
- Refer students to external professionals if required.




- Regularly maintain appropriate confidential records; collect, collate and maintain student information in an online format.
- Caregiver engagement.
- Participate in caregiver meetings with the social worker and conduct caregivers awareness programs as per the needs of the school.
- Collaborate and consult with caregivers, teachers, community organizations and other stakeholders.
- Visit homes of students towards building relationships and understanding the context of students and families.
- Teacher engagement.
- Develop Social-emotional learning lesson plans for all grades with teachers.
- Lead meetings with school teachers for gaining information about observed behavior and a case discussion for brainstorming behavior management strategies in the classroom.
- Partner with the Community Development team to coordinate holistic support for students and families.
- Step in to support general school requirements and collective school initiatives alongside teachers and staff.
- Assessment: Continually monitor and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and mental health in coordination with the social worker.
- Record and document progress on SEL competencies of individual children.
- Present students' social and emotional development in caregiver meetings.
- Maintain confidential student records, session trackers, case notes, and relevant school documentation.

Professional and Administrative Responsibilities

- Track and record all inventory with regards to counseling purposes with assistance from the helper and admin team at Apni Shala.
- Ensure that space and resources in the counseling space are used and maintained effectively.
- Invite and/or manage relevant volunteers/interns for SEL and/or counseling related activities.
- Build meaningful relationships with various stakeholders for advancing the organizational vision.
- Co-plan and execute school-based events with colleagues in service of children and community.
- Attend all meetings with the school team, supervision, and organizational level meetings.
- Lead one action research within the school on SEL practices each year.

Self and Peer/Team Development

- Work towards personal and professional development (PD)



goals of self and peers by actively participating in organizational PDs and other relevant workshops/ courses or reading and researching on relevant themes, co-planning and collective work.
- Facilitate supervision meetings with teaching interns aimed at building a practice of reflection, personal and professional development.
- Participate in supervision meetings facilitated by your supervisor aimed at building a practice of reflection, personal and professional development.
- Participate in review processes for the team and self. Participate in practice-based resources (articles, videos, podcasts, etc) that are produced by the Apni Shala team.

Organizational development

- Participate in resource mobilisation, fundraising, advocacy, communications, culture building and other related activities as guided by the organisation.

Partnership and Relationship Development with Government Stakeholders

- Build healthy relationships with government staff in the school. Work with the team to ensure government regulations and compliance requirements are met in a timely manner.

Knowledge

- Knowledge of postmodern therapy practices such as Narrative Therapy, other counseling models, practices and resources
- Knowledge of mindfulness, Constructivist Learning approaches, and play-based learning (preferred)
- Knowledge child development concepts, mental health, and social-emotional development

Skills

- Ability to work with the age group 4 to 8 years
- Valuable reading, writing and speaking skills in English and Marathi/Hindi
- Well developed communication skills with students, stakeholders, and colleagues
- Ability to offer and receive constructive feedback and create a plan of action for improvement
- Ability to collaborate and cooperate with team
- Ability to collect and analyze data
- Ability to respond effectively to the needs of a diverse student pool
- Ability to motivate and inspire students
- Ability to deal with ambiguity and actively seek out to resolve conflicts
- Proficiency in the use of standard software applications (MS Word, Excel Powerpoint, Google drive)
- Proficiency in report writing
- Sound judgment and emotional intelligence
- Comfortable in traveling across Mumbai

Attitudes and Mindset

- Commitment towards one's own social and emotional development
- Sensitivity towards the need of stakeholders
- Committed to Apni Shala's vision values passionate and accountable for our work with children and communities

Disclaimer: This job posting has been aggregated from external source. Role details, content, and availability are subject to change. Applicants are advised to confirm the latest information directly on the company website before applying.

📌 School Counselor, Khoj (Mumbai)
🏢 Apni Shala
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