What is the potential of group guidance for efforts to support students to stay in school? This article explores experiences of guidance counsellors in Danish upper secondary schools when working with group guidance as a strategy to reduce dropout. We use interview data from an action research project aimed at developing new and sustainable guidance activities in schools catering to young adults (18-25) who have previously left school before graduation. Thematic analysis shows that group guidance enriches the practice of guidance counsellors because it provides an opportunity to alter the structure of their practice as well as the focus and activities during guidance sessions. Furthermore, the counsellors reject (or oppose) an existing ‘retention’ paradigm, finding it ineffective and individualising, and instead, they embrace a ‘community’ paradigm, which they see as having greater potential in reducing dropout, while empowering
them as well as the students.