Pupils as consumers: Perceptions of guidance and counselling in a scottish school

Pupils' perceptions' of the effectiveness of counselling services were investigated within a school with a high degree of commitment to guidance and counselling. Pupils were asked to read eight problems: four were school-based, and four were personal/familial problems. Half the sample were given a list of possible sources of assistance (including counselling staff); half were unprompted On personal and familial problems, the unprompted group were as likely to cite counsellors as being sources of assistance as were the group prompted with the names of counselling staff. This was taken as an indication that counselling staff were spontaneously seen as sources of help on these matters. In addition, respondents completed semantic-differential protocols, analyses of which indicated that counselling staff were seen in more pastoral terms than were other teaching staff. These results are discussed within a perspective that sees the school's guidance and counselling system as interacting with its general ethos.