Welcome to St. Mary Student Services
The Vision
Creating Pathways to Success is founded on a vision in which all students leave secondary school with a clear plan for their initial post-secondary destination, whether in apprenticeship training, college, community living, university, or the workplace, and with confidence in their ability to implement, and revise or adapt, their plan throughout their lives as they and the world around them change. This vision sees students as the architects of their own lives.
Program Goals
The goals of education and career/life planning program are to:
• Ensure that students develop the knowledge and skills they need to make informed education and
career/life choices through the effective application of a four-step inquiry process;
• Provide opportunities for this learning both in and outside the classroom;
• Engage parents and the broader community in the development, implementation, and evaluation of
the program, to support students their learning.
To achieve these goals, every elementary and secondary school, under the direction of the principal and with the assistance of key staff and students, will develop, document, implement, and evaluate an education and career/life planning program based on the policies outlined in this document. (Creating Pathways to Success 2013)
In order to achieve the above goals, guidance counsellors:
• assist the principal in developing, coordinating, and implementing the school’s guidance and career education program;
• provide instruction in guidance and career education through credit courses;
• deliver workshops and seminars;
• implement a process that will ensure that all students complete an Individual Pathway Plan;
• assist students in completing their IPP;
• assist in the IPRC process and correlate the IEP (including the transition plan) and the IPP for exceptional students;
• maintain and establish links between elementary and secondary schools and with community partners to coordinate their involvement with the guidance and career education program;
• deliver and monitor orientation and exit programs and peer assistance programs;
• provide individual assistance and short-term counselling for individuals and small groups;
• assist principals in arranging case conferences;
• recommend appropriate school board staff and community agencies for the provision of individual assistance and short term counselling beyond the school;
• assist students with the transition to postsecondary education, training, and the workplace;
• facilitate the ongoing review and evaluation of the school’s guidance and career education program and the program effectiveness survey.
STUDENT SERVICES STAFF
V. Faiazza (front desk) - Extension 3417
G. DiPaolo, Department Head - Extension 3432
A. Ovcjak, SHSM Counsellor - Extension 4168
J. Girolametto, Counsellor - Extension 4182
Co-operative Education Teachers
V. Spadafora/D. Baldin - Extension 3434
SUPPORT STAFF
K. McLaughlin, Christian-Service Animator (Wednesdays) - Extension 3429
K. Duffy-Kariam, Social Worker (Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays) - Extension 3446