At Cansfield High School we are committed to ensuring that all of our students needs are catered for. We aim to ensure that our Academically Most Able students are appropriately challenged, stimulated and supported in order for them to fulfil their maximum potential in all aspects of their school lives.
AMA stands for Academically Most Able. The term varies across different schools. A more familiar term perhaps may be ‘Gifted and Talented’. We have identified our AMA students as the top 5% of students from each cohort. This decision has been made based on a wide range of data from Key Stage 2 data to CAT scores. The tolerance levels will vary for each year group in order to generate the top 5%. We are aware that progress is not always linear and that some students excel later in their school careers. As a result, we have also included some flexibility for staff to nominate students to be considered as AMA for specific subject areas.
The AMA program consists of a wide range of strategies that target both the cognitive and non-cognitive needs of our students. We aim to provide a learning experience that will help them to achieve their full potential. While many strategies will be clear for both students and parents to see in action, some will involve whole staff training and whole school approaches. These strategies will not be immediately visible to our students, though they will lead to AMA students having an enhanced experience of teaching and learning at the school.
Each AMA student will receive quality first teaching in the first instance and will be further challenged through the academic rigour of our curriculum. We have a planned curriculum that considers the needs of the most able students from intent, through implementation to impact.
During the year the Senior Leadership Team will host Parent Engagement Evenings for parents to help improve students’ mindsets and to provide parents and carers with information on how they can support their child’s progress at home. We want to ensure that students value their education and the opportunities that they have before them and so whenever possible we want to celebrate success across all subject areas.
For any further information about AMA provision please contact Mr Forshaw via email (d.forshaw@cansfield.wigan.sch.uk) or the school phone number (01942 727391).
