Our Christian values provide the grounding on which we base our lives at school. They help us to live out our Federation vision of ‘life in all its fullness’. Our values were identified through discussions with our staff and children on their learning of our school story; The Parable of the Lost Sheep. All members of our school community felt that these values were a true representation of all life as created by God and the grace that flows abundantly from Him. Being respectful, resilient and responsible are not only marks of a believer, but they set Christians apart from others.

Each value provides the focus for each term through explicit teaching within Collective Worship but also through curriculum time. Children have regular opportunities to reflect on what these value looks like in school, at home and within our community. The children look forward to their Christian value achievements being celebrated through our St. Milburga award presented in Celebration Worship.

Our vicar visits our children on a weekly basis and leads our Collective Worship where these values are also reinforced through stories from the Bible as well as readings, prayer and song.

Respect

‘Encourage One Another and build each other up’ 1 Thessalonians 5:11 

We believe that people are made in the image of God, that everyone is special, everyone's opinion matters, everyone's contribution is important, everyone's feelings should be considered and everyone's faith is sacred[MH2] . The impact of this belief enables us to flourish in our intrinsic spiritual development through appreciating and being thankful for our school community and our home.

The Bible teaches us to respect differences in our world through stories like The Good Samaritan and Zacchaeus the Tax Collector.  We use these stories to think carefully about how we treat others.

Within our school, we encourage all, "to treat others as you would want them to treat you." (Matthew 7:12) Respect can mean simply treating each other with politeness and courtesy, and recognising that everyone's contribution is important and that everyone's feelings should be considered.  We regularly discuss how respecting someone does not mean that we always agree with the other person but that we are prepared to listen and share our views without rudeness or impatience[MH3] .  We prioritise the mental well-being of our pupils, staff and the wider school community.

Respect is written into our behaviour regulation policy, stating ‘clear communication and mutual respect between all members of the school community’. When you walk into our school you will see this respect modelled through language used from staff and pupils, as well as the interactions between them. You will see the children taking turns on the playground, the adults being honest about mistakes and children being respectful of each other’s right to learn, ensuring we flourish academically as well as spiritually.

We reflect on our interactions and respectfulness through our worship and reflection areas, where we are able to talk about what has happened and how we can act differently the next time.

As a school we have also carefully selected experiences that will be contextually important to the children in our care. These chosen experiences and activities have been incorporated into our curriculum to enrich learning and enhance the children’s understanding of the world that we live in, enhancing our understanding and respect for all. These are known as our ‘Beckbury 50 experiences before we leave Primary School’ and can be found on our website. 

We believe that respect also applies to our local environment and wider world. Through the Creation story, we learn about God’s world and as part of the Shropshire rural countryside, our children know how important it is to show respect to the environment in order to keep it safe for future generations.

Bible Story: The Good Samaritan/Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

Responsibility

‘I can trust you. You have taken good care of a few things. I will put you in charge of many things.’ Matthew 25:23

We have a responsibility to use our talents for the good of others and not just ourselves. Sometimes this might be fun, sometimes this might be hard work and sometimes we may have to make a small sacrifice. We are a nurturing attachment focused school which encourages children to make positive choices towards others, belongings and actions. We ensure that we are enabling children to become responsible citizens who can be trusted to do their best for the good of others.

Through showing responsibility in every area of school life we embody an ethos of action-taking, challenging injustice and becoming agents of change in the transformation of ourselves, our relationships, our school and wider community. When you come into our school you will see responsibility through the way adults use the behaviour regulation policy to build attachment and trauma aware relationships. This will be modelled in the language used with the children, and the restorative conversations had to ensure children take responsibility for their own behaviours and learning. You will see responsibility through our school council and our fundraising efforts for local and international causes. Our involvement in the Safer Schools Programme also supports children to back an issue they care about and influence change in this area.

All of this enables our children to flourish in their responsibility for themselves through their learning and social skills.

Bible Story: Creation – Genesis 2:4-20 (God gives responsibility to humans to care for the world)

Resilience

‘Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident! Don’t be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go.’Joshua 1:9

We learn from the Bible that resilience is strength of character; to keep going even when we encounter challenge. We teach our children that this can be grown through our open mindsets and that we do not need to do this alone. It takes great courage to show resilience in difficult situations and by guiding our children’s choices and encouragement, our children see that mistakes are how we learn.

Resilience is seen every day at Beckbury CofE Primary School throughout our learning and social interacts. The children partake in many sporting fixtures, both in school and across the county, with resilience playing a key part in our matches. As a small school we need a lot of resilience when it comes to sport. As well as sport, resilience is seen daily in the classrooms when learning is tricky, staff model and encourage resilience in learning using the language from our behaviour regulation policy (such as PACE) to get the children to recognise and identify what they have found difficult and find the confidence to continue on. We are resilient in our relationships, using a restorative approach to figure out what has gone wrong and how it can be resolved for next time.

Bible Story: Jesus calms the storm Matthew 8:23-27

Want to learn more about our values at home?

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