Pastoral care at AMSI is paramount to the health and safety of our staff and students. The Pastoral Team is inclusive of form tutors, Heads of Years, a Learning Mentor and the Pupil Support Team (SEND department), the Inclusion Manager and the Assistant Headteacher (Behaviour, Welfare and Personal Development) and Deputy Headteacher (Behaviour and Operations). At AMSI, we pride ourselves on a very unique aspect of the school pastoral care: our Heads of Years are non-teaching staff. Non-Teaching Heads of Years allows for the pastoral care to be continuous throughout the school day; it means that staff, students and parents can have access to a Head of Year to raise a concern or discuss positive and/ or negative issues directly with the Head of Year without having to wait for long periods of time as it would be if our Heads of Years were teaching members of staff. Issues are dealt with immediately, effectively and in a timely manner with all parties involved being informed of the necessary details. Our communication with staff, students and parents is very strong; many of the school’s celebratory events and updates can be read on our student weekly bulletin, including key messages from assemblies. Our assemblies are a fantastic forum to celebrate student accomplishments as well as delivering important messages and ideas to the students. Senior Leaders as well as Heads of Department regularly present assemblies; we also invite visitors from various organisations to help develop students’ character which are linked to the AMSI Cornerstones and British Values.
Student Council
We have an active Student Council in place. Fifty students from across the school (2 per form class) have been elected to represent their form class in matters of student concerns and suggestions. Of the 50 Student Council representatives, there are 10 School Leaders (2 per year group) who represent the student body and meet with the Senior Leadership Team regularly to present their ideas on behalf of their peers to make suggestions for further improvements and/ or raise concerns about issues which are important to them. Over the last few years, many of the ideas the school has implemented have stemmed from the Student Council and we hope to maintain and continue these in the future in order to support our students’ personal development and well-being.