Vision & Ethos
At St. James’ and Ebrington CofE Primary School and Ebrington’s Little Pickles our aim is to foster a love of learning and curiosity for the world around us. Nurturing our pupils to be accepting, respectful and inclusive of all, spreading love within our school community through relationships with all in our school family and wider Trust and community family.
During the last academic year we have created our own individual school vision for St. James' and Ebrington C. of E. Primary School when we moved from a federation to become part of a multi-academy trust.
Rooted in love, our inclusive school community is safe, warm and welcoming, with wellbeing at the heart of all we do. Everyone is enabled to be curious, love learning and grow together with respect at our two unique sites.
The Story of Our Vision
Love is the central theme in the Bible, it teaches that God is Love and that the world was created by Love, for love. Love was central to the teachings of Jesus who emphasised the importance of relationships and commanded us to love God and ‘love your neighbour as yourself’, saying ‘there is no greater commandment than these’ (Mark 12: 30-31). The love spoken of in the Bible, is not just a feeling, but a way of relating to each other and the world around us, as the apostle Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
1 Corinthians 13:4–8a (ESV)
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
At St. James’ and Ebrington, we believe that love is the connecting thread between all aspects of our school community and interactions with each other, and therefore we explored this as the theological underpinning for our vision. When you visit and spend time with our children and staff, the warm welcome and inclusive atmosphere have developed due to the journey our school has been on and how we have grown - through love - to be a community that celebrates its unique differences but works together to flourish. As Helen Keller says, ‘Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.’
Throughout the school year in Worship and through our introductory vision workshops we will explore a range of stories from the Bible which will enable us to understand the nature of God’s love and how it helps us to relate to each other. Stories such as:
The Creation Story
The Good Samaritan
The Good Shepherd
The messages from these and other stories are accessible to all, regardless of their faith or worldview, and are supplemented by stories from other cultures and religions to ensure inclusivity for the diversity of worldviews represented within our school community.
Love underpins our philosophy and approach that informs all aspects of school life. Our relational practice requires love, compassion, and respect - all of which take courage and honesty. From our day-to-day interactions to the policies, which are an important framework that ensures consistency in applying values and principles throughout the school, relationships based on love in action, are fundamental to how we relate to each other and build a strong and safe school community. Love of the world around us (which the Bible teaches has been created by a loving God) enables us to be curious, supported by our enquiry-based curriculum which engenders a love of learning in which we travel together on a journey of love as we learn to respect and grow together as unique individuals.
The Development of Our Vision
Our vision was created by input from our school community to reflect who we are and who we aspire to be. The following stakeholders were involved in the development of the key messages behind our vision:
Children
Parents
Staff
NCSF central staff
Church team
Community members
NCSF Directors
Our word cloud illustrates some of the keywords collected from our school family. The bigger the word the more often this word was used to answer our question: 'What is unique and special about St. James' and Ebrington C of E Primary School?'
Key statements and phrases were created by the group and shared. All members were able to identify phases or messages they preferred and felt reflected our school family. A draft vision was created and shared for amendments are alterations, which was an enjoyable process as all involved had a clear and shared view on what we strive for and what makes our school community unique and special.
After collecting keywords about what makes our school and nursery so special and unique, with staff, LAC members, directors, and the Church team we explored the roots of these words and how this links to the Bible. Using the ‘Big Frieze’ by Emma Yarlett (from the Understanding Christianity resources which we use throughout our RE teaching) we explored where love is evident in the big story of the Bible. We then read some varying thoughts on love in the Bible and how this is lived out at St James’ and Ebrington.
Our MAT Vision:
Rooted in our Christian understanding of life in its fullness, NCSF schools are safe aspirational learning communities where all are nurtured and cherished to shine and flourish as lights in the world. (John 10:10)
North Cotswolds School Federation MAT
As part of the NCSF Multi-Academy Trust, our school vision support the trust vision and the ethos ‘to ensure that every member of our Trust community is respected, valued, nurtured and challenged to grow, learn and achieve.’
The trust aim is to support a community of local schools, working together to benefit all, whilst ensuring that schools keep their individual identities. Through an understanding of the unique strengths and challenges of schools in the North Cotswolds we will work proactively to create solutions to meet the needs of all of our children and families. We will do this through:
The deliberate prioritisation of relationships at all levels.
Putting children at the heart of all we do, by recognising that to achieve this we need to put our staff at the heart of all we do.
Welcoming, celebrating and including everyone.
The pooling of expertise and resources to ensure the best outcomes for all.
Supporting and challenging ourselves and others to be the very best we can be.
'Working together for a better future for all.'
