Our Mission Statement
“And now these three remain, faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love.”
Working together to achieve excellence within a caring Christian community of faith, hope and love.
Our Mission Statement, is a true reflection of what happens at St James every day to achieve our vision for all our children and school community.
Our Vision
The Lord says, ‘For I know the plans I have for you …. plans to give you hope and a future.’
Our vision is key to all we do at St James and the hopes that we have for our children as they journey through our school.
At St James we work together within a caring Christian community, where all we do is done with love.
Encouraging forgiveness and perseverance in ourselves and others, we learn from our mistakes and grow with kind and happy hearts.
Through our faith in God and each other, we guide all our pupils to achieve excellent educational outcomes, pursue individual strengths and talents and become well-rounded characters.
Inspiring respect and appreciation for our ever-changing world, we embrace its rich diversity and the wonder it offers.
Through these values, our hope is that pupils will flourish, guided by the teachings of Jesus.
Our Values
As a Church of England school with close links to St James Church we have a strong Christian ethos at St James Daisy Hill.
Our six core values encourage a strong moral code in all who are part of the St James family and encourage all to achieve excellence and be the best that they can be.
Each half term, we focus on one of our core values in our worship and share ideas with parents about how you can work with your children to develop their understanding of this at home.
British Values
We value and celebrate being part of Britain. In general terms, this means that we celebrate traditions and customs in the course of the year.
British values play an important role in education and they’re promoted in so much of what we do, not least during our collective worship and Religious Education sessions.
We value and celebrate the diverse heritages of everybody at St James (Daisy Hill) CE Primary School.
As well as actively promoting British values, the opposite also applies: we would actively challenge pupils, staff or parents expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British values, including ‘extremist’ views.
Democracy
Children, parents and staff have many opportunities for their voices to be heard at St James.
The election of our School Council reflects our British electoral system and demonstrates democracy in action: pupils consider characteristics important for an elected representative and then vote in secret. Made up of a representative from each class, the School Council meets regularly to discuss a range of issues as well as those raised by the different classes. The School Council is able to genuinely effect change within the school; in the past, the School Council has planned non unifom days and selected charities.
Pupils are always listened to by adults and are taught to listen carefully and with concern to each other, respecting the right of every individual to have their opinions and voices heard. We encourage pupils to take ownership of not only their school but also of their own learning and progress. This encourages a heightened sense of both personal and social responsibility and is demonstrated on a daily basis by our pupils.
The Rule of Law
The importance of rules and laws, whether they be those that govern our school or our country, are referred to and reinforced often, such as in assemblies and when reflecting on behaviour choices.
At the start of the school year, classes discuss and set their own class routines and expectations, a set of principles that are clearly understood by all and seen to be necessary to ensure that every class member is able to learn in a safe and ordered environment.
Pupils are taught the value and reason behind the laws that govern and protect us, the responsibility that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken.
Specific roles in society relating to the rule of law are explored in various year groups. For example, EYFS explore the role of police officers and community support officers during their topics and other year groups have talks from visiting key people from within the community.
Individual Liberty
Alongside rules and laws, we promote freedom of choice and the right to respectfully express views and beliefs. Through the provision of a safe, supportive environment and empowering education, we provide boundaries for our young pupils to make choices safely; for example:
- choices about their learning or activity
- choices about how they record their learning
- choices around the participation in extra-curricular activities
Our pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are taught how to exercise these safely, such as in Online Safety.
Respect and Tolerance
At St James (Daisy Hill) CE Primary School, we are proud to promote and celebrate our different backgrounds and beliefs. Mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs is one of our core values. Children learn that their behaviours have an effect on their own right and the rights of others.
All members of the school community are expected to treat each other with respect. Staff are expected to be good role models at all times. Tolerating and indeed embracing individuals of differing faiths and beliefs (including those who follow no faith) enriches our school family by broadening our horizons and exploring our commonalities.
