At Christ Church CE Primary School, our vision and ethos is based on Jesus’ commandments to love God and love one another enabling children to grow in their own faith.
In addition to our School Values at Christ Church, we have 5 Christian Values,
which are Compassion, Respect, Care, Love and Forgiveness.
In our school family, everyone is treated with love, care and compassion.
The Christian values of respect and forgiveness are at the heart of everything we do.
Compassion - is all about putting yourself in someone else's shoes, especially when they are having a hard time. It's about trying to understand how they are feeling and then being pro-active in wanting to help and actually doing something about making their life or situation better.
We can show compassion by doing acts of kindness for anyone, friends, family or even people we don’t know. We show random acts of kindness such as donating to charities. We try to be kind to everyone even if we are not friends or we don’t always get along.
In the Bible Jesus shows compassion in many stories such as: Feeding the 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21), The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) and when Jesus spoke to the Pharisees about 'The Golden Rule' (Luke 6: 27-31).
Respect - is valuing everyone and everything and celebrating our differences.
Self respect - means being able to celebrate our gifts and talents, looking after ourselves and the bodies that God has given us.
Respect for parents and carers – honouring mum and dad or those who care for us; helping at home; appreciating what’s done for us; cooperation not conflict; taking responsibility.
Respect for others - everyone is special; everyone's opinion matters; everyone's contribution is important; everyone's feelings should be considered; everyone's faith is sacred.
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.
Care - is thinking about others before yourself.
At our school, we show care towards one another, nurturing each other and supporting one another. We put others before ourselves without expectation of reward.
Caring for ourselves – keeping safe, keeping healthy, keeping fit, keeping prayerful.
Caring for others – pets, friends, all members of the school community (staff and children), visitors, neighbours, others in the outside community.
Caring for our world – the environment, the neighbourhood, the school, the classroom, the earth and its harvest.
Caring for those in need – homeless, the sick, the bereaved, the lonely and the elderly.
Love - is thinking about others before yourself.
The value of ‘Love’ underpins what we do in school. We share a love of learning, love for one another and love for the world that God made.
We believe that through a focus on love by working together as part of a strong and supportive family, we can all achieve more – socially, emotionally and academically.
Forgiveness - is the means by which damaged relationships are restored. It is an act of the will, motivated by love.
Everyone makes mistakes, it’s part of being human. Sometimes our mistakes hurt someone else, we can also be hurt ourselves. When this happens we need to forgive, to accept an apology that is really meant.
Forgiveness cannot be given or received unless it is asked for, and the asking must be genuine and from the heart. Too often ‘sorry’ is said very easily, implying: ‘All I need to do is say I’m sorry and everything will be OK’. Real repentance demands that we take what we have done wrong with the utmost seriousness and have a deep desire not to do it again.
When we forgive we are able to move forward and have a fresh start.
As a Church of England school, we work closely with our church, Christ Church, which is situated next to school. Our relationship with the church is very important to us and we are proud to be part of the Christ Church family. The Christ Church Vicar leads school assemblies, Collective Worship and supports our visits to the church including Christingle, our Leavers Services and our Patricroft Passion (Easter) and POP UK Concerts. We also visit the church as part of our RE Curriculum.
Spirituality - is a very personal experience. It differs from person to person and often spirituality changes within people during their lifetime. Spirituality is not the same as having a religion or faith; a person can be spiritual without having a particular faith.
At Christ Church we use age appropriate language to define spirituality, so when talking to our children we will refer to a sense of awe and wonder – including a sense of fascination and enjoyment in learning about themselves, others and the world around them including caring for nature and living things. We use imagination and creativity in their learning and a willingness to reflect on their experiences to help children make sense of the world around them.
In order to support spiritual development in school, we encourage the use of certain approaches. These include:
Windows - Giving pupils opportunities to become aware of the world in new ways. Learning about life in all its fullness. This includes both the things that amaze them and also challenge them.
Mirrors - Giving pupils opportunities to reflect upon their experiences. To meditate on life’s big questions and to consider some possible answers. Learning from life, by exploring their own insights and perspectives and those of others.
Doors - Giving pupils opportunities to respond, to do something creative in order to express, apply and further develop their thoughts and convictions. Learning to live by putting into action their beliefs and values.
We aim to give our children opportunities to explore spirituality across many areas. The sense of awe and wonder in our world and our own place in it leads to many of life’s biggest questions, such as: “Why are we here?”. The P4C (Philosophy for Learning) sessions that are part of our school practice and provision, give children plenty of opportunities to explore these.
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Collective Worship is an integral part of our school day at Christ Church. It takes place in various forms throughout the week. It includes time for reflection, prayer, song and teaching about the Bible. Our Collective Worship follows our Christian Values – Compassion, Respect, Care, Love and Forgiveness. Charity and global events are also linked to our Christian Values. Our school week follows the following pattern;
Monday – Picture News Assembly linked to world events and issue-based learning.
Tuesday – Collective Worship and Bible Story linked to one of our Christian Values.
Wednesday – Collective Worship and reflection on the previous day – what does this mean for me; our school; our local community and globally?
Thursday – Collective worship with song and prayer.
Friday – Celebration Assembly with the opportunity to reflect on the week's collective worship with song, prayers including our children, parents, carers and staff.
Our children follow the seasonal year by marking special dates and understanding their significance for all main faiths.
At Christ Church CE, children are given the opportunity to write and read their own prayers. Children may, if they wish, write a prayer to put on their ‘reflection tree’ in their classroom and then, if they wish, bring their own prayer to assembly to read or have read. Children are also encouraged to write prayers for a specific Collective Worship Services, such as Harvest Festival, Remembrance, Christmas and Easter. Teachers also read prayers as part of Collective Worship. Our collective worship council regularly lead our school in reflection and prayer as part of daily collective worship. Here are some of the prayers we use in school:
PATRICROFT SCHOOLS CELEBRATE EASTER WITH A PASSION.
Pupils from Christ Church CE and Lewis Street Primary Schools perform their ‘Patricroft Passion’ bi-annually. The two schools, who work in Partnership, try to give children the experience of Holy Week, as opposed to sitting in a classroom listening to it from a book. The build-up to the event includes producing artwork and talking about what Holy Week and the Passion means to them. The children welcome donkeys to lead the Bishop and two children to represent Jesus from each school, around the streets of Patricroft in Eccles, Salford. The Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd David Walker, said “The Easter story is far too big to contain within a church building. It's a story that needs to be paraded through our streets, for everyone to see and join in. I want to say a big thank you to the children, parents and staff of both schools, for making this happen again in Patricroft this Holy Week. And for inviting me to be part of it.” Children from both schools lined several streets in the local area and recreate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
As a Christian school, we are always looking for opportunities to help and support others. During the year we support many local and national charities such as Children in Need, NSPCC, Salford Foodbank, The British Legion, Water Aid and MacMillan Cancer Support. We have links with a local care home where we visit and sing carols for the residents at Christmas. The School Council work with staff to develop how we fundraise and in the past, we have held parent/carer breakfasts/coffee mornings, cake sales and non-uniform days.
We are courageous advocates for the common good, locally, nationally and globally. We recognise that at times all people face challenges and need help and support in overcoming these difficulties. Recent examples include wearing yellow and blue day raising money for Humanitarian supprt to Ukraine. We held assemblies and reflected using Picture News to inform us of the events happening and thought how we could be agents of change. We also participated in the chains of peace challenge. ( add photos) and wrote peace prayers for our community. As part of our Remembrance service at Peel Green war memorial, each child made a poppy which were then shared with residents at local Salford care homes.
Our Christian values ensure that we have opportunities to discuss big issues, to challenge injustice and to engage in activities that can bring about change.
Our children have a good understanding of the meaning of belonging to a local and global community and the sense of responsibility that comes with belonging. They are able to empathise and make small sacrifices to benefit others. Together we appreciate the environment and the impact of our actions on everyone's wellbeing.
Our school community and curriculum actively embraces a responsibility for the world we live in. We all care for our world and all who live in it.
We are proud of our school motto - 'Love, Learn, Discover' and our school and Christian values as they truly represents all aspects of our Christian ehos . Our Vision is based on scripture -
Hear, O Israel: Love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second id this 'Love your neighbour as yourself'. There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:29-31
Church members from Christ Church lead the 'Jesus and Me' Club (Jam Club) on a Tuesday afternoon after school.
The club runs from 3.15pm to 4.00pm.
The children enjoy listening to stories from the bible, sing songs and engage in craft activities.
There is no cost for Jam Club. Please enquire via the school office about places.
As a Church of England school we also have a report from the Statutory Inspections of Anglican and Methodist Schools, known as SIAMS.
SIAMS inspection focuses on the impact of the Church school's Christian vision on pupils and adults. This involves looking at the school’s Christian vision, the provision the school makes because of this vision and how effective this provision is in enabling all pupils to flourish.
In our most recent Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist School (SIAMs) inspection report we were delighted to be identified as an Outstanding school (October 2016). Please view the download below to read our final report.
Click below to view our collective worship resources, letters from the Diocese and policies:
