Christian Distinctiveness
St. Jude’s Church of England Primary School is a community founded on Christian Values: Respect, Achieve, Inspire, Nurture, Belief, Outstanding and Welcoming (RAINBOW). We provide a safe environment, where a lifetime love of learning begins, the whole child is nurtured and each child is valued and able to thrive. Our overall aim as a school is for our children to reach their full potential and believe that ‘Children are the Rainbow of the World’.
Our most recent SIAMS said:
“The school, through its distinctive Christian character, is good at meeting the needs of all learners”
“The excellent pastoral care in this welcoming and nurturing Christian family community ensures Christian values are modelled and pupils are encouraged and inspired, enjoy their learning and achieve well.”
Our Vision
Everything we do at St. Jude’s links back to our vision. We believe that this allows children to flourish in and out of the school environment:
At St Jude’s we offer a safe, secure and nurturing environment where everyone is welcome. Working in partnership, we respect everyone and celebrate our diverse community and individual differences. Our rich, inspiring curriculum offers the knowledge, skills and understanding to equip our children to be successful learners, preparing them for lifelong learning opportunities.
“If our children do not feel safe and secure, then they can’t learn and flourish.”
“St Jude’s is our Ark”
Noah and the Ark- Genesis 9: 14
God said, “Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears, I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings. When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth. That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings.”
This is underpinned by our Rainbow values: Respect Achieve Inspire Nurture Believe Outstanding Welcoming.
Spirituality at St Jude’s
At St. Jude’s we see spirituality as an ongoing reflective journey to discover and understand ourselves and others. To be inspired and in awe of our world and the wonders of life.
To develop our spirituality we explore our school Vision, Rainbow values and our curriculum through the lenses of ourselves, others, the world and the wonders of life. We explore and reflect on our spiritual journey across our curriculum and school journey at St. Jude’s.
When we think about respect, we reflect on how we respect ourselves, how we show respect to others, how we respect our world and how we show respect for the wonder of our own creation. We will also reflect on why this matters: Why should we respect ourselves? Why should respect others? Why do we need to show respect to our world?
Throughout our spiritual journey at St. Jude’s we will continue to develop ourselves and become more than just reflective thinkers, we will become advocates and champions for causes that we believe in. Instead of just thinking about why respecting the natural world is important: we will advocate for environmental changes and question actions, which do not show respect for our world.
Worship
Class Worship Areas
The areas have our school vision and values prominently displayed and a cross as its focal point. It will include other artefacts, pictures and Bibles to engage the children in thought and prayer.
The worship areas usually follow the same theme as collective worship to enable the children to deepen their understanding and thoughts behind each Christian message.
The Curriculum and Spirituality
• Develop curiosity
• Articulate ethical issues
• Value learning
• Explore Spiritual issues, and;
• Enjoy asking and answering questions
Specific examples include:
• Teaching Black History through our focus week and across the curriculum.
• The use of purposeful play within EYFS to develop curiosity
• Geography and looking after the environment for future generations
• Making connections between Anglo-Saxon deities in paganism and deities in Hinduism
• Awe and wonder in science – how diverse species of life on Earth and the role they play in it
• And much, much more!
Promoting Fundamental British Values
The Key Values are:
• Democracy
• Rule of Law
• Individual Liberty
• Mutual Respect
• Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs