Christian vision
Our school's Christian vision is "Through Faith, Friendship and Fun we Learn and Grow." This vision permeates our school. It is fundamental in all of our leadership decisions, it steers our curriculum and reveals itself through the day-to-day running of the school.
The Bible teaches that people who follow Jesus' teaching "are strong. Like a tree planted by a river. The tree produces fruit in season, and its leaves do not die. Everything they do will succeed." (Psalm 1) Our vision allows us the create an environment that allows everyone to flourish.
Our vision has been chosen as we feel it allows Jesus' teachings to be used by us as a school. We have a collection of core Christian values that we use to support our teaching. These values of Friendship, Trust, Respect, Forgiveness, Truthfulness and Perseverance underpin our collective worship and support our vision.
Our pupils and staff's spiritual development is also supported by our vision. We explore and linger in thought, seeking and exploring connections with the seen and unseen world. We come together to celebrate what we have and take time to consider our place in the world.
We gather together each day to take part in Collective Worship, where the children sing, pray and hear Christian messages together. It is a special time of the day and something we all look forward to. We ensure our worship is inspired by recent events to engage our pupils in their learning and make our Christian messages relevant to all of our daily lives. Parents have a legal right to withdraw their children from the act of worship and should speak to the headteacher if they wish to do so.
We celebrate key Christian festivals (Harvest, Christmas and Easter) in the church of St James, Defford, which is led by Reverend Allison Davies, our vicar. Each child leaving us at the end Year 4 is presented with a Bible from the Church.