As a Church of England Voluntary Controlled School, we have very close connections with St. Mary’s Church in Shincliffe. We have links with other churches in the Durham area too.
Christian Values for Schools
To help us live out our Christian Vision of ‘life in all its fullness’, each half term, we focus on a different Christian Value. This is done explicitly through our Collective Worship time, but also throughout our curriculum. Children have regular opportunities to reflect on each value and to develop an understanding of the Value in action. Each Friday, in our Celebration Worship, we acknowledge children who have demonstrated these values and how that helps them to experience ‘life in all its fulness’.
Our visitors from St. Mary’s Church (Father Peter, Father Bill and Mrs Matthews) regularly lead our worship to help us to reinforce our understanding of each value as they share stories from the Bible. Children have opportunities to plan, prepare and lead worship for the whole school through class assemblies.
The Values we explore and strive to live by are:
We believe these values are empowering our pupils to develop their spirituality and guiding them in personal development as effective learners and good citizens. We encourage children to ‘look up’, ‘look in’ and ‘look out’ as a shared language for understanding spirituality. For more information please view the Christian Values for Schools website or our Christian Values Powerpoint for Parents.
During the Spring term we will be revisiting and further exploring the value of Peace and Justice.
Peace
This term we will be focusing in School on the value PEACE. We hope your family will find these ideas helpful as you explore the value and have fun together.
The biblical concept of peace is not just the absence of war. It includes peace with God, positive harmony and healthy relationships between people. It involves spiritual as well as material security. Peace, in the sense of total well-being for the whole of creation, is the ultimate goal.
Matthew 5:9 says “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”.
In the school context peace–making actions can include everything from conflict resolution to creating times and places for stillness and reflection.
We would like our children to continue their reflection and experience at home. Please look at our home school value sheet for peace. This will give you lots of ideas of activities you can do at home.
Some things to think about:
- How do you feel when you are peaceful?
- What sort of things make you feel peaceful?
- How important is peace in your life?
- Do you have a special place where you feel peaceful?
‘Peace begins with a smile.’ Mother Teresa
Justice
This term we will be focussing in School on the value of Justice.
Justice is . . . . . .
Looking after each other so that everyone has a fair share of what they need.
Justice and mercy are key themes of the writings of the Old Testament prophets. Biblical justice is more than fairness and equality, it is a strong bias towards the weak, the poor and the socially disadvantaged are cared for, whether they ‘deserve’ it or not. In God’s eyes every person is precious and oppression or discrimination, on any grounds, has no place. God’s justice is gracious—He always acts justly and he calls on people to do the same.
Amos 5: 24 says let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
We would like our children to continue their reflection and experience at home. Please look at our home school value sheet for justice. This will give you lots of ideas of activities you can do at home.
Some things to think about:
- How can we take responsibility for one another?
- How can we ensure all are treated fairly?
- How and why do we support charities in our school?
- How can we be inspired to recognise injustice in the world and think about our own role in fighting it?
‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ Martin Luther King, Jr.
SIAMS
In December 2025 we underwent a Statutory Inspection of the School as an Anglican School (SIAMS). We are delighted with the J1 judgement that we received. For further information regarding the SIAMS reports please view our school performance page.
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