West Island School endeavours to provide a safe, caring, stable and supportive environment which values every member of our community. Within this environment we aim to develop students’ self-esteem, self-respect and sense of responsibility towards themselves and others. The Pastoral approach, taken by all staff, is concerned with the well-being of the whole child, which includes both their academic and personal development. All members of staff are form tutors at West Island School with tutor groups being of 15 – 17 students.
The Guidance and Achievement Team
The Guidance and Achievement team comprises a Pre and Post 16 phase. They promote and instil the school aims and values through their work with individual students and year groups:
The Pre and Post 16 Guidance and Achievement teams oversee student performance and behaviour through:
- Monitoring each child’s academic progress and extra-curricular progress
- Providing appropriate intervention for students who require additional support and guidance in order to achieve their individual potential. The teams involve parents as and when required.
The Guidance and Achievement team ensure they work with a range of staff to provide students with appropriate and effective levels of intervention:
- Heads of Faculty including Individual Needs and EAL
- Pre and Post 16 CAS coordinators
- The Pathways mentor for Oxbridge and Ivy League
- The Careers Team
- The school counsellors.
- The school nurse
- External agencies when appropriate
The Guidance and Achievement team draw upon a range of information and data to gain a holistic overview of each child’s progress. This includes:
- Monitoring the ARR information including Learning Attitudes
- Additional data from MIDYIS, ICAS, INSIGHT
- Student involvement in the CAS programme
- EAL (English as an Additional Language), IN (Individual Needs) G and T (Gifted and Talented) intervention strategies
- Feedback from tutors regarding 1-2-1 discussions
- Parents Evenings
Guidance and Achievement Team Structure
The Guidance and Achievement team for 2015-16 comprises the following staff:
| Pre 16 phase | Post 16 phase |
| Ms.Clare Haworth, Vice Principal | Mrs Susan Carey, Vice Principal |
| Mr Guy Hewson, Director of Learning | Ms Sam Kitson, Director of Learning |
| Daniel Betteridge, Head of Year 11 | Ms Sara Ellison, Head of Year 13 |
| Ms Emma Goodwin, Head of Year 10 | Ms Julie Hannaford, Head of Year 12 |
| Mr Blake Harding, Head of Year 9 | |
| Ms Sarah Boesenberg, Head of Year 8 | |
| Ms Jessica Gilbert, Head of Year 7 |