Being a Church school

Why is being a Church of England School so special?

Church schools have Christian beliefs and values at their heart. This means that every child and adult associated with the school are not just important because they are members of the school but because they are seen as unique individuals within God's creation. Church schools recognise that as well as academic and emotional focus everyone also needs spiritual support. The spiritual aspects of life will be recognised, and nurtured alongside the academic and emotional needs of all. Church schools are places where challenge through questioning is encouraged as through time this can make sense of the world, the gift of life and the purpose of our own personal lives. The purpose of a Church of England school is to offer a spiritual dimension to the lives of young people, within the traditions of the Church of England, in an increasingly secular world.

As a Church of England school, working closely with our local church, our vision and values underpin everything that we do. They are fundamental to our teaching and learning, and provide an environment that prepares our children to be confident, respectful, happy and well prepared for their next steps. Our curriculum is built on our core set of Christian values and these provide a moral compass and a common language of learning behaviour for the school family and wider community. The values equip our children with social and relationship skills, intelligences and attitudes to succeed at school and throughout their lives.  We all share a desire to learn, support, nurture and consider others.

We value and celebrate each other’s gifts and talents through respecting differences; we offer friendship and support by developing a sense of trust within our school family and also within the community which we are so proud to be a part of. 

We aim to provide high quality education to ensure high standards of achievement for every child. We aim to create independent, successful learners who can persevere through tricky situations, confident individuals and responsible, aspirational citizens. We aim to encourage children to be resilient, truthful, creative and resourceful so they can adapt in our ever changing world. We aim to provide a happy, caring and welcoming school rooted firmly in Christian values where forgiveness is at the heart. We aim to provide a life-long love of learning. We all believe that it is important to live our lives with Jesus as our role model, demonstrating the Christian values that He taught us.

Values are taught and applied throughout the curriculum, for example, through our carefully planned subject leadership documents, our curriculum statement and intent documents for each subject area, enrichment planning, charitable events, Collective Worship, Open the Book, learning attitude expectations, behaviour policy, community links activities (see policy), PSHE, business enterprise week, mental health and well-being focus and activities, theme days, cookery, playground mediator training, lunchtime leader training and responsibilities, pupil parliament and ministerial roles, ECO group, Roots and Shoots, assembly angel responsibilities and trips and visits.

Our values provide a common language and are the foundation on which our learning, decision making and policies are built upon. Our focus on nurture and support for all children is evident in our provision and staffing. We are determined that every child will be happy, successful learners. The schools behaviour policy acknowledges these values as our guiding principles for learning behaviour. 

We have whole school awards presented in Celebration Assemblies linked to our core values:

'Pig Award for Perseverance'

'Hedgehog Award for Trust'

'Fox Award for Friendship'

'Teddy Award for Forgiveness'

'Monkey Award for Truthfulness'

'Lion Award for Respect'