Vision, Values, and Worship
In this section we explore what it means to learn in a church school. You can find out by looking at the presentations and reading the text in this section.
What does it mean to be a church school?
Our Vision Statement: Inspire today to shape tomorrow
This vision statement is 'anchored' by the school's main bible quotation:
'Do not change yourselves to be like the people of this world but be changed to a new way of thinking.
Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you and you will know what is good and pleasing to God.’
Romans 12:2
Our vision is to develop well rounded, confident, spiritual and educated individuals who, with God's love, thrive throughout their whole life. We encourage our pupils to be active citizens in a rapidly changing world, working together as a community to make it a better place for everyone.
Our goal is to support and nurture our pupils' natural desire to be life-long learners by demonstrating the value of education. We build skills allowing them to flourish throughout their education, in their future careers and in God's world.
We offer a safe, happy place where everyone is known and valued, and where differing needs are acknowledged, accepted and met. We celebrate our uniqueness in God's diverse world and respect the same in all other people.
God has entrusted us to look after his wonderful creation and we strive to show our pupils the importance of caring for this, developing an understanding of our impact on the world's ecosystems and working to develop a harmonious and sustainable future.
We do this by following our 7 core Christian values of Justice, Kindness, Equality, Forgiveness, Acceptance, Uniqueness and Respect.
Collective Worship, Faith and Spirituality. We look to find times when all children can explore their own spirituality.
Bible stories in whole school Collective Worship are made accessible to everyone. We can find examples from history and from the modern world, as well as in our own lives. Using Picture News in tutor-based Collective Worship is designed to provide opportunities for our pupils to learn about the world, encouraging exploration and discussion.
While some children and staff will be practising Christians and people of faith, everyone can access collective worship and other work in school through exploring their spirituality.
Opportunities to experience the 'great outdoors', visits to museums, experiencing incredible poems, pieces of writing, video stories of inspirational people and beautiful pieces of art can create the feeling of spirituality.
Vision, values and bible quotations
Collective Worship, faith and spirituality
There is a bible quotation linked to each of the 7 school values.
We have used the presentation below with the pupils in tutor time, giving them the opportunity to explore and discuss what they feel the bible quotations mean and how they link to the specific school value.
We then looked at where we can find examples of the values in the lessons and other activities in school.
We are in the process of mapping our values and their appearance in our curriculum.
Collective Worship Policy
Next steps - the church school, PSHE, personal development and wellbeing
In our development as a church school, we are now linking the work also being done in PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education), for example to focus closely as a school on diversity and personal development. Within this, over the coming years we are expanding and learning as a staff about how we develop resilience and confidence, while looking closely at wellbeing, both for children and adults in the school.