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Individual guidance sessions are part of every counsellor’s routine. Last year, as part of my efforts to keep the senior leadership team updated while consolidating our international department, I decided to write a report that would include key elements regarding my guidance sessions with students and their families.

The idea was twofold: report what happened during the semester and also transform this practice into information that could support future internationalisation-related decisions.

Although it was tempting to explore details and write extensively, I had to keep in mind that one of my purposes was to inform people who, ultimately, had little – if any – previous knowledge about the topic. Because of that, I set some guidelines for myself before writing.

I decided that I needed to fit the entire report on to a single page. It would be divided into three sections: status, challenges and actions. I would include visuals only if they illustrated important pieces of information more clearly. Each challenge and action would be described in a single line.

Section 1: status

The first section aimed to provide a quantitative overview of our current status: namely, the number of students with whom I had at least one meeting during the semester and their countries of interest.

I also added two graphs to this section. The first illustrated how many students in each grade attended the meetings and showed a concerning tendency: few students sought guidance in 9th grade (year 10), and most of the students I worked with came to me only in their 12th and final grade (year 13).

The second graph highlighted the direction in which we hoped to move: encouraging students to seek guidance earlier, so that they could progress in their journey through high school with clearer perspectives about international opportunities and reach their final year prepared to make decisions about their post-secondary plans.

Section 2: challenges

For the second part, I adopted a more qualitative approach. Looking back at my notes and meeting reports, I noticed that many students were facing the same challenges, so I would frequently have that I-think-I’ve-heard-this-before feeling.

The students themselves recognised some of these challenges as obstacles. More concerning, though, was that on many occasions students did not even recognise that some aspects of their academic profile could become a setback – or even a real barrier – to studying abroad.

I wanted the senior leadership team to be informed about this because it could help us identify priorities that could guide our next steps as a school, even before they started being seen as such by families and other stakeholders.

From the 10 challenges I listed in the report, two stood out because they linked students’ needs to opportunities for institutional growth. The first and perhaps most significant: students lacked international exposure. It was unrealistic to expect them to embark on a three- or four-year undergraduate degree abroad without first having experienced some form of international education, such as a summer camp or an exchange programme.

Another significant issue I found was that some students’ assessment of their own English skills was inaccurate. In our meetings, when I asked them about their English skills, the common answer was, “My English is very good.” This almost automatic response probably stemmed from the fact that they tended to do well in English tests, or because many of them attended private ESL courses outside school. But when faced with situations such as a mock interview, they tended to perform below expectations. Identifying these patterns made it easier to think about institutional responses rather than proposing isolated solutions.

Section 3: actions

The last section of the report had the objective of turning all the gathered information into actionable recommendations. One principle guided the writing of this section: each action should address more than one challenge simultaneously.

Considering that the internationalisation department was still evolving, these actions should be feasible and make sense to our reality as a national curriculum-based school. But at the same time, they should move us closer to the ultimate goal of creating an environment where international opportunities become a realistic option for our students. 

One of these recommendations was put in practice during the first semester of 2026: we developed an internal English proficiency test. In the first week of classes, all Ensino Médio students (10th through 12th grades, or years 9 to 11) completed a written assessment covering reading, writing and listening skills.

After receiving feedback on their results, those who wished to could then book an individual speaking assessment. I was not expecting much engagement because this part of the test was optional, and a speaking test can be challenging and generate a great deal of anxiety. Contrary to my initial expectations, a little more than 25 per cent of the students decided to take the test.

I kept a spreadsheet with all the results achieved and, with the support of an AI tool, generated a report. As a result, we now have a much clearer picture of our students’ English proficiency across all high school grades. This will allow us to plan our next steps more strategically and make more informed decisions regarding ESL classes and internationalisation initiatives.

Section 4: achievements

This year’s report will have one additional section: achievements. It celebrates our first student admitted to a university in Spain, two students who are going abroad on exchange programmes and the progress made through the implementation of the English proficiency assessment.

One year after the first report was produced, I now realise that this practice has become a record of our growth. Documenting the process has helped us put our progress into perspective and see that we are moving in the right direction. More importantly, it reinforces that meaningful institutional change can be built through small actions, if they are consistent and well planned.