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Ethos and Vision

Our Ethos

“Recognising its historic foundation, the school will preserve and develop its religious character in accordance with the principles of the church of England and in partnership with the Church at parish and diocesan level. The school aims to serve its community by providing an education of the highest quality within the context of Christian belief and practice.  It encourages an understanding of the meaning and significance of faith, and promotes Christian values through the experience it offers to all its pupils.”

Our Vision

Learn to love and love to learn; in God’s love each one will shine

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”  (Matthew 4: 19)

St Andrew was a fisherman in Galilee, the brother of Simon Peter.  Jesus invited Andrew to follow Him and learn from Him and to be one of His disciples.  Jesus invited Andrew to learn to love, love to learn and shine. Jesus is also inviting us to learn to love, love learning and to shine.

Jesus also told St Andrew that he would fish for people, which he did. (Matthew ch.4 v.18-20).  Andrew shared what he had learnt from Jesus about love and caring for others and this is what Jesus is inviting us to do too.

Our vision is led by the example of St Andrew;

Learn to Love – Love and respect for ourselves and others.

As Jesus showed Andrew how to be the very best of men, so we guide and support our children to become the best that they can be. We teach our children to love and have respect for themselves and others, physically, morally and culturally.

Love to learn – Learning without limits, learning for life.

Just as Jesus immediately saw the character and depth of Andrew at that first meeting on the shores of the Sea of Galilee calling him to be his disciple, so we see and encourage the strengths and interests of all our children. We aim to help develop their love of learning, encouraging and developing their sense of enquiry and aspiration and become lifelong learners. We never give up on our children.

In God’s love each one will shine – His love provides the firm foundations for growth.

Following Jesus’ command; “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” (Matthew 4: 19), St Andrew brought people to meet, to love and to learn from Jesus. In a similar way we help our children to follow Christian values, to receive the love of God and to shine that love to others in His grace. Our curriculum is built around the fish symbol to show that the love of God and Jesus is at the heart of all that we do.

To achieve our vision:

Learn to Love: Love and respect for ourselves and others.

We:

  • live the values
  • understand that there is no ‘I’ in team, together we succeed.
  • create school policies which develop a caring, community atmosphere in which teaching and learning can take place in a safe and happy environment.
  • promote and encourage healthy lifestyles through our PSHE and PE curriculums, Collective Worship and phase meetings.
  • work collaboratively with our parents, governors and other stakeholders to help our pupils be the very best that they can be.
  • have a behaviour policy which is developed to help pupils make correct choices and treat others with respect. Our school rules ask three questions which help develop our pupils’ personal sense of responsibility towards their behaviour. These are:
    • Is it respectful?
    • Is it safe?
    • Are you ready to learn?
  • look outwards towards our local community, supporting events and issues to help develop our pupils’ sense of being a good citizen.
  • actively promote the British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs, and thereby prepare our pupils for life in modern Britain.

Love to learn: Learning without limits, learning for life.

We:

  • encourage positive self-esteem. Jesus knows you better than you know yourself, and He loves you and values you.
  • encourage our children to “Strive to be the best we can be at all times”.
  • promote a Growth Mindset whereby we advocate “learning without limits.”We encourage the challenging of fixed opinions.Through our “You can, toucan” awards our pupils learn that anything is possible. We foster perseverance and a passion for achieving long term goals. “I cannot do it ….. YET!” “If you can dream it, you can do it!”. 
  • offer an enriching curriculum which engages and challenges.
  • track the progress of each child and adapt our curriculum to their needs.
  • model and value a love of learning .
  • communicate with all stakeholders about the progress and needs of our pupils and constantly strive to do better wherever we can.
  • create a safe, nurturing environment which helps our children thrive.

In God’s love each one will shine. His love provides the firm foundations for growth.

We:

  • understand that we thrive in the light of God.
  • maintain strong links with the local Parish Church of St Andrew’s and the St Alban’s Diocese, who support and guide us.
  • develop an awareness and understanding of God’s love and of Christian values in all that we do.
  • provide a nurturing, inclusive, Christian environment where our children can develop their relationship with God.
  • have daily collective worship
  • have a spiritual area in all classrooms
  • teach Christian values which permeate all aspects of school life. Our values include: respect (for all, for self, for the environment), thankfulness, perseverance, being trustworthy, courage, justice, forgiveness, truthfulness, friendship, generosity, compassion, service, and many more.