Life as a Church School
Our vision and values
Flourishing Together
Through our core values within a distinctively Christian context, our vision is to inspire, develop and nurture all of our children, rooted in a strong sense of belonging, enabling them to flourish, succeed and go forward into the world with the skills, compassion and resilience to
make a positive difference. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;” Galatians 5:22
Our curriculum
Our curriculum aims to help children and our school community recognise how to take responsibility for their own and others’ wellbeing (Body, Mind and Spirit), using inspiration from people, places and the plight of our planet to enable them to flourish and make a positive difference to the world – now and in the future. It has been planned with the vision and values outlined above at its core - see our curriculum information and long term plans for further details.
Our Worship and links with our local church
Collective worship is central to the life of our school. All children are involved in developing worship (which takes place at a class, key stage and whole school level), and our worship leaders in year 6 act as role models in exploring their faith and spirituality. We try to involve the children wherever we can in asking and discussing the big questions regarding the world around them and their part in it. At each act of collective worship a child lights the candle(s) and reads the school prayer to start our special time together. The children also change the colour of the cloth (at the front of the hall) to reflect the different church seasons.
We have a Friday Family Celebration Assembly each week which celebrates achievements and looks to bring our community together in celebrating the children's success in all areas of their education and learning.
Our Reverend, Jonathan Brennan visits us regularly to lead worship, and the children also attend services at St Peter’s Church throughout the year, including special times during the year. The children help to organise and lead these services.
Specific services led by the children (at school and at church) include:
- Harvest festival – Hawthorn class (Year 4)
- Remembrance service – Oak class (Year 6)
- Christmas Nativity – Cedar class (Year 2)
- Christingle – whole school
- Easter service – Elm class (Year 3)
Children enjoy visits to the church to explore their learning in both R.E. and the wider curriculum, and Jonathan not only supports us in our worship (both at whole school and class level), but also on a pastoral level (being available to children, staff and parents in times of need).
A number of children in Key Stage 2 are members of St. Peter's Junior Choir. They rehearse weekly at school and sing at monthly All Age Services at the church.
Links with organisations and charities
As stated previously, our curriculum seeks to ensure that children are inspired to make a difference to their world – both now and in the future. Some examples of this include:
- Link with St George’s Crypt at Harvest and at Christmas (Reverse Advent Calendar).
- We work closely with Thorner Parish Council and the British Legion for Remembrance, and in creating links between the children and community (World Book Day and volunteer readers, Y6 community tea party).
We are really excited that as part of our curriculum we are working on the Global Neighbours Scheme through Christian Aid.
Spirituality for all at Thorner
We believe that the ability to explore faith, values and spirituality is an entitlement for all members of our school community. Therefore, we have developed the attached spiritual development guidelines to support our children, staff and governors in this area.
