The emotional needs of children within a school setting may fall between health and educational service provision. There has been a growth of school based counselling provision and this study reports on an evaluation of counselling provided through a charitable organization for primary school children. The study was set up to explore the differences on educational and emotional parameters between children referred for counselling and those not referred and to examine change over time on these parameters after six months of counselling provision. A consecutive cohort of children referred to the project by teachers (n 24) were compared with matched class peers (n 25) on a set of standardized educational and emotional measures, repeated at six months follow-up. There was little difference between the groups prior to intervention except on number skills. Overall scores were low, with the majority of mean scores for standardized tests more than one standard deviation below average normative levels. There were few differences after the intervention, except for the fact that intervention group children were significantly less worried in school ( p 0.03). The small pilot study suggests that there were no significant differences between control and intervention groups on cognitive or emotional functioning prior to intervention except for number skills. Pre±postintervention analysis revealed an improvement on block designÐ perhaps accounted for by improved concentration skillsÐand an improvement in self-esteem. This study highlights the challenges facing children in inner city schools and the gains made by counselling provision. It sets the agenda for future studies to examine content of counselling and explore cost effectiveness of provision. Copyright