Supporting Our Staff

A positive and purposeful school community

Our school is a community where we help and support each other in line with our Christian Values of Justice, Compassion, Forgiveness and Trust and our commitment to ‘Values, Care, Achievement’.

We believe in the strength of a positive and purposeful school community, underpinned by visible supportive leadership at all levels.

We work on the assumption of ‘good intent’ and that ‘mutual good will’ is key for a school to be successful over time. We trust that colleagues are striving to do their best, but those that need support are not afraid to ask and it will be provided in a non-judgemental way.

We are proud of our record of recruiting, retaining and developing our staff. Our commitment to the Career Pathway and Learning, Training and Development programmes reflect our ongoing desire to help all our staff be the best they can.

A great staff community

The school is very keen to foster a ‘community feel’ and believes it’s been successful in achieving this for staff given the low staff turnover and high retention rates we experience. Our success in this area is driven by a number of factors:

• The staff room was recently extended and refurbished to remain the hub of the school community
• The school pool and fitness suite are available to staff at no charge
• A staff extra-curricular programme is in place and brings people from different departments together
• Senior Leaders have an open door policy for all staff
• Staff Pulse Surveys allow all staff to share their views anonymously and regularly to ensure their voice is heard
• The Staff Wellbeing Panel allows for staff to meet and discuss a wide variety of areas and this is feedback the Leadership team each half term
• The AHS Curry Society meets in York for a curry at different restaurants across the city every half-term
• Christmas and Summer Staff Celebration Events take place every year
• Free Food is provided for Training Days and Parents Evenings Informal
• NQTs and RQTs are supported by SLT-link mentors
• Almost all staff have their own teaching room – with our aim to ensure that even more staff have a base for September 2021
• The majority of departments have their own offices where staff can work and socialise

Continued support for our staff

Key to ensuring that this continues will be our ongoing consideration of:

1. Fair and reasonable workload
2. High quality training and professional development
3. The importance of staff wellbeing and a positive working environment
4. Pay and rewards at least equivalent to national agreements for teachers and support staff

We are also fortunate to be part of the Pathfinder Multi Academy Trust and the benefits that being part of this bigger community brings.

To ensure that we continue to build on all our achievements we have identified ten key commitments that we will continue to prioritise both as a school and as part of a Trust.