Our Vision Aims and Values
Loved, Inspired, Nurtured & Empowered
Loving, Nurturing, Inspiring and Empowering children within a caring Christian community - Working together to embrace tomorrow's opportunities.
Our Vision
At Holy Trinity CofE Primary School we have high expectations of everyone and our aim is that everyone is loved, nurtured, inspired and empowered within a caring and inclusive Christian community. We teach our children Christian values and promote positive attitudes to learning to ensure they have all they need to become lifelong learners who reach their full potential and become good global citizens.
Our School Aims
- Create a stimulating, secure and supportive learning environment – through an engaging curriculum that motivates all our pupils and instils in them that learning from mistakes is as valued as achieving success, thereby nurturing them to develop skills of resilience and perseverance.
- Strive for achievement and celebrate success – inspiring children to set ambitious personal goals and to realise their full potential in achieving high standards socially, physically, spiritually, creatively and academically both as individuals and collectively as part of a team.
- Develop a rounded individual – empowering our pupils to become: effective communicators, motivated, enquiring, innovative, confident, adaptable and emotionally literate. Encourage them to take ownership of their learning, make choices for themselves, giving them opportunities to voice their opinions and contribute to the further development of the school.
- Live our Christian values – recognising that we are culturally diverse and that everyone matters, we place our Christian values at the heart of all that we do. These are embraced by everyone engaged with our school to make for a loving and caring Christian community as demonstrated through a selfless attitude, polite manners, and exemplary behaviour.
- Collaborate and support - parents, children, staff, local community, diocese and governors actively working together in partnership, recognising every individual’s rights and responsibilities towards themselves and others to enrich the learning experience of all pupils.
- Prepare for the future - to develop the confidence to embrace tomorrow’s opportunities by: becoming discerning, life-long learners; using technology to solve problems; feeling excited and prepared for what lies ahead with the courage to take the initiative.
- Raise awareness of the world around us – encouraging pupils to be aware of their responsibilities within the local, national and global community to help create a sustainable future.
Our School Values
Promoting British values at Holy Trinity CofE Primary School
The government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy, and the DfE has reinforced the need “... to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.”
At Holy Trinity CofE Primary School, these values are reinforced regularly and in the following ways:
Democracy
Democracy is embedded within the school. At the start of each academic year the children decide upon their Class Charter and the rights associated with these, to help everyone to do his/her best. All children contribute to drawing up their Charter. Pupils are always listened to by adults and are taught to listen carefully and with concern to each other, respecting the right of every individual to have their opinions and voices heard.
Pupils also have the opportunity to air their opinions and ideas through our School Council. The elections of the School Council members are based solely on pupil votes, reflecting our British electoral system, and demonstrating democracy in action. Year 6 pupils study democracy as a separate PSHE topic to learn more about the wider issues of parliament and democracy. Year 3 also learn about the history of democracy as part of their ancient Greeks topic.
At Christmas, all children are encouraged to research and present a case for supporting a charity of their choice. Through pupil voting, a class choice leads to one year group nomination. Each year group then presents to the whole school to vote on which charity to support. All collections from Christmas performances go to this chosen charity, receiving £1500+. Recent successful nominations have been: ‘Médecins Sans Frontières (UK)’ to support the work against Ebola, RNLI, Brain Tumour Research and Chase Children’s Hospice.
The Rule of Law
The importance of laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced at Holy Trinity C of E Primary School. Pupils are taught from an early age the rules of the school. These are our Class Charters, School Rules, Playground Rules and Safety Rules. Each class also discusses and sets its own rules that are clearly understood by all and seen to be necessary to ensure that every class member is able to learn in a safe and ordered environment. Pupils are taught the value and reasons behind rules and laws, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken. Visits from authorities such as the Police and Fire Service help reinforce this message.
Individual Liberty
Within school, pupils are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school we educate and provide boundaries for young pupils to make choices safely, through the provision of a safe environment and empowering education. Pupils are encouraged to know, understand, and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and how to exercise these safely, for example through our E-Safety work and PSHE lessons. Whether it be through choice of challenge, of how they record, of participation in our numerous extra-curricular clubs and opportunities, pupils are given the freedom to make choices, e.g., Year 6 pupils run lunchtime clubs for the younger children and produce a plan of activities to cover several weeks alongside consideration of health and safety.
Mutual Respect
Our school ethos and behaviour policy are built on our school Christian Values which encourage mutual respect:
- Forgiveness
- Truthfulness
- Service
- Thankfulness / contentment
- Compassion / love
- Life is of infinite value
- Humility
Pupils are regularly part of discussions and assemblies related to what our values mean and how they are demonstrated at home and at school. Our high-profile Values posters around the school promote respect for others - and this is reiterated through our classroom and learning rules, as well as our behaviour policy.
Tolerance of those of Different Faiths and Beliefs
Our work as a Rights Respecting School alongside our values promotes mutual respect and tolerance of those who have different faiths and beliefs. Holy Trinity CofE Primary School enhances pupils' understanding of different faiths and beliefs through religious education studies, assemblies and PSHE lessons. We have staff and families of different faiths and no faith and feel, as well as representing the society we live in, together we enrich our learning experience too.
At Holy Trinity CofE Primary School, we actively challenge pupils, staff or parents expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British Values, including ‘extremist’ views.