Biblical Foundation

‘Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path’  Psalm 119. 105

Vision Statement

Taking God’s word as our compass, we hope children develop ethics of excellence, becoming the best they can be while embracing new opportunities.

Our school is a learning community welcoming and celebrating diversity and personality.  We create a curriculum which enables children to flourish holistically.  Our days are designed to be tapestries of stillness, energy, ambition, challenge, reflection and fun!

Maximising our glorious surroundings, we seek to find learning indoors and outdoors revelling in the world God provided.  Young leaders are nurtured, becoming the change they hope to see, using their voice, energies, gifts and talents to be a positive difference.

Foundations in the Scriptures

'Rooted in Faith' opens our school Mission Statement which represents our clear, distinctive Christian foundations therefore our school Bible Verse captures this. We have chosen Psalm 119 105 as it illustrates that we use the Bible as guidance, as teaching and as our compass.  We often make reference to 'What would Jesus do?' in our decision making, when reviewing choices and offering advice.

The psalm can be spotted around the school so it is a familiar point of reference which can be used by children and adults alike.

Where our Mission Statement came from

We have recently reviewed our Mission Statement and spent over a year discussing this with all our stakeholders.  We invited Liz Agbettoh from Blackburn Diocese to facilitate discussion with teachers, support staff and governors.  This resulted in a plethora of key ideas.

The headteacher and assistant headteacher then led a pupil focused session - we had all year 2, all year 6 and all members of each school council.  The children had strong ideas but luckily there were many common elements that were also shared at the staff and governor session.

We then sent out a parent survey and received 186 returns which guided our pathway. 

After much thinking aloud, shuffling huge sheets of paper, grouping and sorting,  our main ideas were becoming clear.

We wanted something we could all remember, which we could all own and find ways of keeping it alive in our school.

A rhyming Mission Statement with actions was created.

All our children, all ages, all abilities, all cultures know this inside out and we re-enact it together every single school day.

Children spotted living out our Mission Statement may be chosen to add their names to each class's Mission in Action box.  During Celebration Praise we draw out one from each class to choose a small prize and to join the headteacher for hot chocolate (including whipped cream, marshmallows and chocolate fingers), we chat, talk about the week we have had, the weekend to come and celebrate being spotted going 'above and beyond.'   A favourite time of the week!

Each half-term, we explore one Christian Value in depth.  Having started the school year with a study of friendship we have then moved onto exploring both courage and creativity.  The nature of the last twelve months as prompted us to look at each value through a very different lens and finding the need for these strong values to be needed in our lives more than ever.

Through art work, poetry, story, people, song, prayer, community and direct Bible teaching we hope to gain a stronger sense of creativity - we look forward, we retain appreciation and value for all we do have, we consider what is most important and present, we consider the generosity of God in the wonderful world we have inherited to steward for our own future.  The gifts we have all been given and how essential it is to use these wonderful gifts to their full potential and for good.

Each value, we invite parents to support this teaching at home through discussion and activity, even participating in our Home Value Challenge.  This half-term, we are asking our children to become photographers and capture something in our natural world which has caught their attention and made them stop and wonder.

The value is developed within class through their own Reflection Areas and Class Collective Worship.

Our Lighthouse Group bring together our Collective Worship experiences which can be seen on our Reflection Wall in the school hall.