Pupil Support is at the centre of the school and underpins the fundamental ethos of AHS which is that our school is, first and foremost, a caring community. Never has the need for this been more clear than in the changing personal and educational environment created by the Covid pandemic. This has been an unsettling and challenging time for us all.

To support our young people and their families we have five dedicated and experienced Pupil Support teachers:

Mr Paul Regan

Mr Adam Johnson

Mr Michael Manson

Mrs Kerri Redfern

Mr Michael Boxwell

They ensure that our caring intentions turn into action we have a number of key commitments at the core of our practice:

To ensure that each young person knows and is known personally and in some depth by at least one member of staff.
To consider the young person’s personal, social and intellectual development.
To help the young person to be aware of their own development and to accept responsibility for it.
To identify and respond quickly and appropriately to the specific needs of the individual.
To foster the development of good relations between teachers and young people.
To work well with the home in all aspects of the young persons development.
To liaise with support and welfare services.
To systematise and make effective the recording and communication of information relevant to the welfare of each young person.

These objectives derive from the belief that Support is a natural and continuous part of school organisation, and not simply a response to specific occurrences and crises.

These objectives form the backbone of the work that we aim to do in Pupil Support.

What do Pupil Support do day-to-day?

On a day-to-day basis, Pupil Support teachers perform some of the following tasks in school:

Supporting young people and dealing with crises that sometimes occur in school
Promoting positive behaviour and anti-bullying
Communicating with parents
Liaising with subject teachers
Working with External Agencies to support young people, including Social Work, Educational Psychologists, Youth Workers and the School Counselling Service.
Setting targets and monitoring progress
Providing information and advising young people at points of transition within school.

Whilst each Pupil Support Teacher is allocated a caseload of young people, there is always a teacher on duty in Pupil Support to help any person who needs help urgently.

Pastoral Care also refers to the work we do in Pupil Support, supporting all young through their school careers.

More specifically, pastoral care means:

Establishing, binding, meaningful and productive relationships with the young people in our caseloads in order to create an atmosphere of trust between support teacher and young person, which helps ensure that children and young people feel that they can share their worries, concerns and thoughts with us as they progress through school.
Dealing with difficulties and issues that young people face in school, including bullying, fall outs with peers, difficulties accessing and coping with the curriculum, behaviour and social and emotional issues.
Working with subject teachers, SfL staff, parents and external agencies such as Social work, the Psychological Service and Shetland Befriending, in order to support, advise and help young people.

We at Anderson High School believe that a high standard of pastoral care is fundamental to creating strong mental and emotional wellbeing among young people in our school. The Pupil Support team are central to this commitment and ensuring that every young person in AHS gets the support they need to thrive in school, in their career and in life.