Vision
Our Christian vision is to follow Jesus’ teaching, helping us to strive for excellence in all that we do and flourish as unique individuals so that all can ‘Shine Bright’. This is underpinned by Jesus teaching in Matthew’s Gospel that everyone should ‘Let your light shine…’
The Cragside family is special and we aim for all our members to be independent, enthusiastic learners and responsible citizens, living up to their true potential, being all that they can be by looking in, at themselves, looking out, towards others and looking up towards God and/or as part of their own spiritual journey. Throughout their time in school everyone is encouraged to have confidence in their own abilities so that they have the opportunity to achieve their potential and feel empowered to use their voice to enable themselves and others to flourish and shine. We promote mutual respect, tolerance, and understanding and encourage respect, responsibility and individuality. Positive and caring relationships are the thread which weaves through all of our school community-relationships where all are valued and all value each other. All children, staff and families in school are celebrated as unique individuals who are valued, loved, celebrated and supported. We strive to enable all to SHINE BRIGHT and flourish at Cragside.
Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Looking In Looking Out and Looking Up
At Cragside we want everyone to explore their own spiritual and personal development through encounters with themselves, others and God and/or something bigger than themselves. We talk about Looking In, Looking Out and Looking Up.
Looking In
We encourage all members of our Cragside family to take time to get to know themselves, who they are and what they think. We encourage self-reflection and self-care and for every member of our community to love and value themselves as a unique child of God. We encourage everyone to explore their gifts and talents and celebrate themselves.
Looking Out
We encourage all members of our school to use their gifts and talents to look out towards others. We want all members of our school community to use their gifts and voice to show love and care for others both locally and globally. Through encounters with others we encourage children and adults in school to be advocates for change and to develop a passion for fighting social injustice.
Looking Up
We are all spiritual beings on our own spiritual journey. We encourage members of our team to explore and consider something greater than themselves. We provide opportunity for prayer, reflection and encourage children and adults in school to explore life’s big questions.
Our School Values
Our school values of kindness, love, perseverance, joy, forgiveness and respect are informed by our vision and give children and adults in school ways of supporting ourselves and others to SHINE BRIGHT.
British Values
The DfE have outlined the need ‘to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all
schools to promote fundamental British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and
mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.’
The Government set out its definition of British Values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy and these values
were reiterated in 2014 within the introduction of the new Curriculum. Cragside CE Primary School
upholds and continually teaches pupils about the British Values which are defined as:
- Democracy
- Rule of law
- Individual liberty
- Mutual respect
- Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs
These values are taught through the whole school curriculum and explicitly within Religious
Education and PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education). British Values are explored through
worship and the planning and delivery of a broad and balanced curriculum which promotes the
spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils. We use the Picture News
resource to promote discussion and understanding of these values across school.
At Cragside, these values are reinforced continuously and we address the British Values in the
following ways-
Democracy
Pupils have many opportunities for their voices to be heard. There are several Pupil Voice
committees within school where a cross section of pupils are able to represent their peers and
discuss things which are important to us as a school, sharing their ideas and opinions and making
real changes to school life. These pupil voice committees include, Climate Champions, Kindness
Ambassadors, Sports Leaders, Church & Worship leaders, Art Leaders …
Rule of Law
The importance of laws and rules, whether they are those that govern the class, the school or the
country, are consistently reinforced through regular school days. The school has high expectations of
behaviour and a whole school behaviour policy which reinforces this. Pupils are taught the value and
reasons behind laws and rules, how they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves
and the consequences when laws and rules are broken. School actively tries to promote these
through encouraging visitors into school from authorities such as the Police and Fire Service to help
reinforce this message.
Individual Liberty
Within school, pupils are activity encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and
supportive environment where they are valued as unique individuals. As a school we educate and
provide boundaries for children to make choices safely, through the provision of a safe environment
and planned curriculum. Children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and
personal freedoms and are advised how to do so safely, for example through our Online Safety
teaching and PSHE lessons. Pupils are given the freedom to make choices and encouraged to do so.
Mutual Respect
The school vison, and behaviour policy, is based around that we all shine bright and this includes
promoting respect for others and how they want to be treated. This and the values of respect,
kindness, love, forgiveness, joy and perseverance and determine how we live and flourish together
at Cragside. Through collective worship, RE and PHSE we teach children about the inherent value of
each person no matter who they are. We teach children to treat everyone with love and to value
each other as the unique and special people they are. Collective worship often focuses on Justice
and inequality that exists within our society and world and supports the children in developing
empathy and understanding by unpicking the reasons behind injustice.
Respect of those of different faiths and beliefs
The RE curriculum to ensure that children learn about a range of religious and non-religious world
views throughout their time at Cragside and not just what people believe but the real lived
experience of people in Britain and around the world. We enhance pupils’ understanding of their
place in a culturally diverse society and by deliberately planning opportunities and choosing
resources which enable pupils to encounter and celebrate diversity. We explore religious and non-
religious world views in depth and study them as philosophers, theologians and human and social
scientists. Children have encounters with people of faith and are able to talk to them about their
real lived experience. We use our daily worship sessions to explore spirituality as a personal journey
which is unique and different to everyone no matter what their worldview.
