Christian Distinctiveness
The Church of England’s vision for education is deeply Christian, with Jesus' promise of 'life in all its fullness' at its heart. Rooted in this, our own school offers a vision of human flourishing for all; one that embraces academic excellence alongside character & spiritual development and an emphasis on making a positive contribution to our community and the world.
At St Peter’s, the flourishing of our pupils goes along with the flourishing of our staff as well as our school community at large. We truly want to be a place for all to flourish.
Our vision: A place for all to flourish
Inspired by the words of Dr John Sentamu, we believe that in order for our pupils to truly flourish, not only must we focus on developing knowledge and positive character attributes amongst our pupils but it is just as important as to inspire and empower our pupils to change the world for the better.
We aim to do this by putting an equal emphasis on developing the head (academic excellence), heart (character, wellbeing & spiritual development) and hands (making a difference).
We have also ensured that our school mission aligns with the Church of England’s own vision for education:
Head (Educating for Wisdom, knowledge and skills)
Heart (Educating for Hope, aspiration, dignity and respect)
Hands (Educating for community and living well together)
Our Mission: To empower and inspire a community of lifelong learners by providing an education of the head (academic excellence), heart (character, wellbeing & spiritual development) and hands (making a difference) in order to change our world for the better.
Alongside our vision and mission, our school values are the final golden thread that underpins everything we do at St Peter’s. Our values reflect how we expect our school community to behave and underpins all relationships. Our values were created by all key stakeholders including representatives from our local church ensuring they are theologically rooted in Christian teaching.
Our values:
In order, to make our values and their links to Christian teaching 'child friendly', we associate each of our values to a bible story that the pupils will encounter during their time with us, either through RE or Collective Worship:
All in all, our school’s vision is central to leaders’ decision making and all that we do here at St Peter’s.
Being the only school in Ruddington with Key Stage 2 – with both the Infant school and Secondary school both being non-faith schools – our vision and values reflect the context of our school and the journey our pupils are on. As a result, our theologically rooted Christian vision has been carefully crafted in order to ensure it serves the whole school community.
The teaching of RE at St Peter’s fulfils the ‘Statement of Entitlement’ as set out by the Church of England. It is taught according to the locally agreed syllabus for RE meaning our pupils are delivered sequenced learning about a range of religions and worldviews fostering respect for others. Central to our RE curriculum is the study of Christianity (the majority religion studied) as a living and diverse faith – the Understanding Christianity resource has recently been introduced in order to support our teaching of Christianity within our RE curriculum. RE has a high profile within our curriculum and, for the past few years, its development has been a whole school priority.
Our village church plays a central role in the life of our school. The Vicar, one of our foundation Governors, leads weekly whole school collective worship as well as being a regular visitor to St Peter’s. The Church hosts a weekly after school ‘Thursday Church’ on our school site which offers an opportunity for our families and community to worship in an informal setting. Our pupils also visit the church throughout the year to supplement their RE learning as well as to celebrate key Christian festivals. We have two other committed foundation governors who both active with the local church and are regular visitors to the school. As well as this, the local Methodist Minister (until very recently) regularly led acts of collective worship and the Ruddington Baptist Church collaborates with the school on some whole school events.
The role of collective worship plays an integral part in school life. It allows the whole school family to come together including guest speakers, pupil led sessions and weekly worship led by our local churches. Not only does it provide pupils with the opportunity to be still and reflective, but is also the main platform for exploring the school vision and values with pupils. As a result, the impact on pupils spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is strong.