Our Values

Our Christian Values

• Integrity
• Trust
• Generosity
• Honesty
• Respect
• Care

Living out our Christian values

Parish School will promote the broadest possible personal development of pupils and staff.  Spiritual, moral, social, cultural, physical, emotional and creative development will be set in the context of the school’s Christian ethos. In particular Parish School will seek to stimulate in its pupils a real respect for, and generosity towards each other along with honesty and integrity. These values will define the way we view the world; our personal relationships, and our vision for the school. The school is a place where pupils and staff are cared for and trusted and where they learn to care for and trust one other.

The nurture and development of children is achieved through partnerships between the children; their parents and carers; the school, and a number of other agencies working in the community. As Parish School seeks to fulfil its own role in this process it encourages parents and carers to see themselves as full partners in its work.

 As we promote care for one another within the school so we shall care for people in need beyond our community. We shall also care for our environment by managing the school site and buildings in sustainable ways.

We use the visual of a tree to represent our school.  Our core values are our roots, that anchor us and form the basis of all that we do at Parish.  These are rooted in biblical teaching and are demonstrated through bible stories which form part of the worship cycle.

The trunk is all that we do, our curriculum which focuses on the holistic development of pupils, staff and the wider community.  (Eph 2 v 10).  We think of good works as being all that we do to enable those at Parish to flourish, to build learning, friendships and faith.  If you were to cut through the tree, the cross-section would demonstrate this, with the roots feeding the core, and the rings representing the growth in knowledge, skills and understanding – a representation of how those at Parish develop and flourish.

The evidence or our good works are the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5 v22-23). Our attitudes to one another, our commitment beyond our school walls and our interactions with one another help the tree to blossom and fruit. (Jeremiah 17 v 7-8)

As a diverse school we are always reflecting on the needs of each individual member or our community.  This means that we are constantly looking at any barriers which might prevent growth, whether this be academic, emotional, or physical hence the creation of our community hub and outreach work that we do.

Collective Worship 

As a school our core virtues are respect, generosity, honesty, integrity, care and trust. These virtues will define the way we view the world; our personal relationships, and our vision for the school.  In order for pupils of all ages to understand these virtues we promote them through the teaching of the Fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control).

Over a three year cycle we focus on one or two of these ‘fruits’ in order to deepen our Christian character and shape the relationships between all members of the school community or one of our core values.  This year we are focusing on Fruits of the Spirit.

Our Virtue for this Half Term is Faithfulness

The Christian Faith is at the heart of Parish School, and so collective worship has a high priority in the school’s daily life. Collective worship promotes the school’s ethos and values.

Our worship is structured:                                

• Monday - Whole School Worship
• Tuesday - Phase or Class Worship
• Wednesday - Family Worship, led by a class
• Thursday - Phase or Class Worship
• Friday - Celebration Worship

 Learning Attitudes

At Parish, we believe that children learn best when they are encouraged and praised for the effort that they put into their learning and thinking. We have created learning attitudes as a way of promoting positive attitudes towards learning through core values and ways of thinking. The aim is to change students’ negative attitudes towards learning and focusing their thinking by promoting a growth mindset and not a fixed one. Children’s effort and thinking are praised, not just their successes, to ensure that the process of getting to their success is appreciated. 

Attitudes are learned behaviours which are highly susceptible to change. By introducing these core ways of thinking, that are strongly linked to the four ways of thinking in Philosophy for Children, we will be helping to shape the children’s attitudes within the classroom and beyond. These learning attitudes will act as a motivational tool and focus to show collaborative, caring, critical and creative thinking. We want children to love challenge, be intrigued by mistakes and enjoy effort.