Citipointe Christian College is a large independent school in Brisbane with almost two thousand students and more than three hundred staff. Its wellbeing, pastoral, and learning support teams work in a fast-paced environment where student needs shift quickly across the day. Behaviour incidents, learning adjustments, crisis presentations, and counselling sessions often occur back to back, and each requires clear documentation to ensure information is shared across teachers, year levels, and support staff.
Ronelle Grobbelaar leads the counsellor team with a strong focus on factual, defensible records shaped by her child protection background. Her clinicians manage sensitive conversations with students and parents that require timely follow up and precise communication. Greg Heffernan, Head of Primary, oversees staff wellbeing in these high-pressure roles, where workloads are heavy and administrative demands often extend beyond school hours. In this setting, a tool that strengthens documentation, supports communication with families, and protects staff time is critical to delivering consistent, safe student support.
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Challenges
Citipointe’s wellbeing and pastoral teams faced heavy daily caseloads, rapid transitions between conversations, and inconsistent note-taking systems. Staff relied on memory to capture details from long meetings, then typed notes after hours. In a large school with high parent expectations, this created administrative strain, increased risk of missed follow up, and reduced capacity for core student support work.
High-volume days with no time to document
“You really just have thirty five minutes… sometimes those poor counselors would be seeing up to eight to ten [students] on a bad day” - Ronelle
Counsellors moved from one student to the next without time to write notes. Key details accumulated across the day, increasing cognitive load and making recall more difficult during complex behaviour or wellbeing conversations.
Documentation spilling into evenings
“[The staff] spend hours at night when they are supposed to be marking, typing up notes”
Slow typing speeds and duplicated work meant many staff completed their documentation after hours. This added strain to roles already stretched by teaching, pastoral care, or crisis management responsibilities.
Complex meetings requiring precise follow up
“There are a lot of different moving parts and a lot of people can fall through the gaps if they are not supported” - Greg
Behaviour incidents, additional needs meetings, and parent discussions often involved multiple stakeholders. Staff had to remember every action agreed, communicate it clearly, and ensure it was carried out. Without a reliable system, important steps could be missed or delayed.
Solution
“I brought my Heidi in and said, can I show you what this does?” - Ronelle
Ronelle first introduced Heidi after using it in private practice. She demonstrated it directly to school leadership, showing how behaviour meeting minutes, parent summaries, and follow up actions could be generated instantly.
“I did a deep dive on every competitor and other option I could find. You are the only one. You do not have any strong competitors.” - Greg
Greg conducted a deep technical and security review. With strict data residency requirements, Heidi became the only viable choice.
Adoption grew organically through peer modelling, especially from a campus counsellor who used Heidi in meetings across many departments. Staff quickly recognised how Heidi supported real school workflows: counselling notes, behaviour reviews, learning adjustment meetings, parent summaries, and enrolment interviews.
Greg and Ronelle’s 3 Favourite Features:
Note generation: Accurate, structured meeting notes captured in real time, reducing cognitive load and preventing duplicated work.
Letter and summary creation: Instant parent summaries and follow up emails produced through the input field to streamline communication.
Customisation and flexibility: Templates and prompts adapted to school workflows, ensuring consistent documentation across wellbeing and support teams.
Impact
“These are the staff who have the most stressful roles in the school. For those people to be feeling supported in this way has been really fabulous.”
Heidi has reshaped how Citipointe’s counsellors, leaders, and wellbeing teams support students and families. Documentation now happens within the meeting itself, reducing after-hours work and strengthening communication with parents. Staff conducting emotionally sensitive discussions with students can stay fully present, knowing details are captured accurately. The result is a more coherent, reliable, and sustainable support system for students.
Key outcomes:
Clear, timely communication shared with parents after complex meetings.
Reduced reliance on memory during consecutive student sessions.
More consistent documentation across pastoral, counselling, and learning support teams.
Strong staff confidence in accuracy and consent processes.
Greater presence and clarity in student counselling
“I tend to now relax a little bit more and be a lot more engaged” - Ronelle
Heidi reduces the cognitive load of capturing sensitive counselling conversations, allowing psychologists and counsellors to focus on the student’s emotional cues. Staff have increased rapport and can ensure subtle details are not lost during high case-load days.
Stronger parent communication and follow up
“[Heidi will] summarise, draft the parent email explaining what was discussed and what we need to do next.”
Staff confidently provide families with clearer updates after behaviour or learning support meetings. Parents receive accurate language that reflects what was agreed, reducing confusion and strengthening trust in the school’s processes.
Better continuity across team boundaries
“They do not have to remember in the meeting what follow up steps they mentioned.” - Greg
Case managers, heads of year, and counsellors rely on Heidi’s summaries to coordinate next steps across departments. This reduces the chance that behaviour plans, wellbeing strategies, or learning adjustments are lost between teams.
Consent processes that fit school realities
“We always have consent in writing… for heads, they get the consent on the phone” - Ronelle
Heidi fits into the school’s varied consent workflows, enabling counsellors to follow therapeutic standards while allowing pastoral staff to obtain verbal consent in less clinical contexts. Families understand why documentation is needed and appreciate that staff remain present during discussions.
What’s next
Citipointe is continuing to expand its use of Heidi across new school workflows, including enrolment interviews with young children and multilingual meetings with families across thirty seven nationalities. Greg sees momentum building.
“Anytime I sit down and chat with anyone about this, it is a good meeting.”
Ronelle sees broader potential for other schools that face similar administrative burdens but lack healthcare-style infrastructure. With clear documentation embedded into daily workflows, the college can continue protecting staff wellbeing while ensuring students do not fall through the gaps.
