“With thankfulness, courage and love, we strive to improve heart and mind.”
Christian Vision and Values
With thankfulness, courage and love, we strive to improve heart and mind
| Our School Christian Vision
At Chilton Foliat Primary School we honour our educational heritage, supported by a strong Christian ethos. We strive to provide a diverse education that inspires children to develop a thirst for knowledge. This is delivered in a safe, thoughtful and nurturing environment promoting self-discipline, motivation and excellence in all that we do. We encourage strong partnerships and inclusive relationships amongst pupils, parents, carers, staff and the wider community. |
We have chosen John’s Gospel Chapter 4:13 as our biblical underpinning of our school vision and core Christian values of, thankfulness, courage and love. Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst”.
Our contextually-appropriate theologically rooted Christian vision through which we learn about the nature of God is the driving force which enables us all to flourish. The River Kennet, the flowing river on whose banks we sit, with all its tributaries, surging in the same direction yet sometimes taking a different course to reach the end goal, is our chosen vehicle. Symbolic and spiritual the river journey is synonymous with the journey taken by our children as their education progresses and takes them further afield. With these values, thankfulness, courage and love, our children are prepared for the next phase in their education. As we all follow the flow, with Jesus by our side, we will never be thirsty.
Living Out Our Christian Values
As we actively engage in our Christian values, we gain self-esteem and self-worth, become better decision-makers, learning better self-control through thinking more intelligently. Relationships improve as we learn to value each other, accepting and celebrating all our differences. We understand ourselves better and our place in the world. Sitting at the heart of our Positive Behaviour Policy, our values enable a mechanism to resolve disagreements. Our Christian values nurture us and help us discover the very best of ourselves.
Although we keep at the centre of our Christian journey our three core values, we also explore a series of connected Christian values each term, securing deeply our Christian distinctiveness as a Church of England Primary School. Our values engagement is also linked with appropriate bible stories and psalms and supported by our frequent visits from local clergy, and the “Share the Story” bible story team. The choosing of our core Christian values involved the whole school community, including our children, their parents and carers, the whole school staff team and our Governors.
Our Christian Vision and Values Curriculum
Underpinning the distinctive Christian vision of the school lies a values-based curriculum which gives focus to many aspects of life at school. We want our children to leave Chilton Foliat Primary School with a deep understanding of the impact of living out our school values. As a result, they will be well-rounded, confident and able to contribute positively to a wider and diverse community. They will want to continue to thirst for knowledge and strive to improve heart and mind in their next educational setting.
We ask our children “big questions” linked to their cross-curricular learning journeys. For example:
- How can I show thankfulness to the world around us?
- How do we show love for our local area?
- How do we conquer the fear of the unknown or unseen?
- Do you have the courage of your convictions and are ready to speak out about injustice?
- Loving our bodies and our minds. What can we do to love ourselves more?
School Involvement in the life of the local church community
Chilton Foliat Primary School are also proud and protective of our strong links with the local church community. Clergy representatives regularly come to school to guide our children in Collective Worship. Once a week, we also welcome our Share the Story Team who deliver exciting, participative and interactive worships based on relevant readings from the bible through which to engage all our children in the teachings of many Christian concepts and the teachings of Jesus.
The children love to go to our local church, St Mary’s Chilton Foliat. Not only to celebrate our traditional Christian celebrations such as Harvest and Christmas, but also to visit at one of God’s special places. A Reception child summarises the impact our church visits have on the lives of our children, “even though church is cold, I feel warm because I know Jesus lives here.”
Courageous Advocacy
At Chilton Foliat Primary School we have a strong emphasis on encouraging our pupils to become courageous advocates, not just locally, but nationally and globally. It is important for our children to appreciate their role as part of a community; to take responsibility, to be able to look after themselves & to foster an understanding of their importance, impact and influence in the world.
As Courageous Advocates we aim to speak out against injustice, sometimes on behalf of those whose voice is not heard, whether friend or stranger. We also speak out as a collective, knowing that joining our voices will lead to greater impact. Speaking out, at whatever level this takes place, requires an element (and sometimes a great deal) of courage! Becoming a courageous advocate for change, encourages us to gather information about an issue and act beyond just knowing, to saying and doing.
To ensure that we and our community give, inspire and flourish together, we are supportive of charities in our local area, nationally and globally. We endeavour to support their aspirations and ideas by becoming informed so that we can create strong links, speak out as campaigners and raise funds.
| Where | Value | Organisation |
| Local | Love | Action for River Kennet (ARK) |
| National | Thankfulness | Children in Need |
| International | Courage | King George VI Centre for children with SEND, Zimbabwe |
Curriculum Enrichment, Projects and Themed Weeks
Click on these links to get a flavour of some of whole school curriculum enrichment projects and themed weeks which have at their centre the ways in which we live out our Christian Vision and Core Christian Values.
Together and Connected Tuesday
Together and Connected Wednesday and Thursday