Emotional and Pastoral Care

The emotional and pastoral care department at AM’S COLLEGE provides a comprehensive program that addresses the academic, emotional, career and personal/social development of all students. Thus, these departments are divided into three streams-Emotional and Pastoral Counselling, college Counselling and Career Counselling. In addition to the above, the counselling department teaches personal, social and health education as part of the school’s curriculum. 

The counselling department exists to provide emotional guidance for students. The department is committed to assisting students in reaching their personal and academic potential. The department strives to nurture and develop well-rounded and emotionally-stable students through the provision of professional, ethical and confidential counselling.

The department offers the following services to students and staff:

• Individual Private Counseling
  
• Class Counseling/Personal Social and Health (PSHE)
  
• Small Group Counseling
  
• Workshops
  
• Support or Staff
  
• Support for Parents
  

PSHE is a program that is organized to help the students gain knowledge, understanding and practical skills to live healthily, responsibly, safely and productively. It is part of the school’s curriculum for all year groups. Students are taken through topics such as:

• Personal Hygiene
  
• Emotional and Physical Wellness
  
• Mental Health
  
• Puberty
  
• Global Awareness
  
• Leadership Skills
  

This program exists to ensure that the academic as well as non-academic needs of students are met.

The Visual Arts Program

The aim of the Visual Arts program is to appeal to students to explore practical work through a range of two and/or three-dimensional processes and include new media and technologies in addition to traditional media and processes. 

The scheme has been designed to combine a breadth and depth of study, to accommodate a wide range of abilities and individual resources, and to provide opportunities for its students to explore both practical and critical/contextual work.

The programme is structured in a way that encourages personal expression, imagination, sensitivity, conceptual thinking, and powers of observation, as well as analytical abilities and practical attitudes. We make it fun as the students and faculty visit Galleries, exhibition centres and places of cultural significance.

In AM’s COLLEGE, Visual Arts students have the opportunities to gain a greater understanding of the role of the visual arts in the history of civilizations, and so widen and enrich their cultural horizons.

Studying Visual Arts in AM’s COLLEGE encourages students to develop:

• Experience of working in relevant frameworks and exploration of manipulative skills necessary to form, compose and communicate in two and/or three dimensions.
  
• An ability to identify and solve problems in visual and/or other forms.
  
• Confidence, enthusiasm and a sense of achievement in the practice of art and design.
  
• Engagement and experimentation with a range of media, materials and techniques, including new media and technologies.
  

Home-School Partnership

The parents and caregivers should be encouraged to be a part of the process of doing home learning. It will be reinforced that the role of the parent or caregiver is to help the student review work, through discussion and example. They should encourage questions and skills that lead to discovery, whilst underlining the importance of independent work by the student.

Parents should be kept in touch with the home learning demands on their children either through student planners, assignment notebooks or some other comparable method. If a student is consistently failing to complete home learning in a satisfactory manner, including situations where the parent is over-involved, the parents must be informed and their co-operation enlisted. Parents are expected to support the school’s home learning procedure.

A parent conference will be arranged when a student has been identified as needing support. Parent input is essential to establish the needs of the student. Regular meetings will occur with parents, class teachers and learning support teachers (subject teachers where appropriate) to review progress.

Parent Volunteers

The parents and caregivers should be encouraged to be a part of the process of doing home learning. It will be reinforced that the role of the parent or caregiver is to help the student review work, through discussion and example. They should encourage questions and skills that lead to discovery, whilst underlining the importance of independent work by the student.

Code of Ethics for Volunteers:

A volunteer:

• Enjoys working with children.
  
• Helps to create a positive climate and supports the faculty, administration, and staff by following school wide and classroom regulations.
  
• Is in the school to increase students’ confidence and strives to bolster each student’s self-esteem.
  
• Deals impartially and fairly with students regardless of differences in background and nationality, intelligence, physical ability, or emotional maturity.
  
• Remembers that direct communication with parents about a child’s school work is the responsibility of the school’s professional staff, and thus, refers parents to the appropriate teacher.
  
• Maintains confidentiality about children’s activities and performance.
• Speaks constructively of all staff, but reports difficulties involving the welfare of students or school to the Division Head.
  
• Consults with the supervising teacher at appointed times so as not to interrupt the instruction schedule. Follows school procedures for setting up a conference with own child’s teacher and discusses own concerns at an appropriate and convenient time, pre-arranged with the schedule.
  
• Is reliable in following through with arrangements.
  

The Musical Production

Currently, we are working on our all-school musical, with the Orchestra, a Musical Production that will go live in 22 at the National Theatre. The cast is taken mainly from the upper and Lower School Divisions with a few minor parts given to students in the Pre school Division. Casting is done by auditioning. 

Music and orchestration are provided by the Music Department, consisting of the 50-member Lower School choir, the upper primary school choir and orchestra. Vocals for the Production are done by the Lower school choir, while the main solo renditions are done by the choir of the upper primary Division. Instrumentation is provided by the school orchestra. Rehearsals are intensive and are done on Thursdays. 

Parents play a vital role in support and sponsorship of the various events, as well as helping to procure sponsors. 

All productions are produced and directed by our ever talented TLFA faculty.