Christian Distinctiveness
Weston Hills CofE Primary School
School Vision
‘Learning for Life in a Community that Cares’
Weston Hills is proud to be an inclusive and caring Christian Church school. Through our core values of Faith, Hope and Love we nurture and inspire our whole community to achieve academic, personal and social excellence, regardless of background or ability. We offer a stimulating, ambitious, creative and fun curriculum, enabling children to move on as successful learners, confident in their ability to adapt and grow as God intended.
‘So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.’ (Matthew 7:12)
Our core Christian values are FAITH, HOPE and LOVE. ‘Three things will last forever--faith, hope, and love--and the greatest of these is love.’ (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Collective Worship
We are proud of our status as a Church School and to belong to the Church of England within our community. Our distinctive Christian vision is at the heart of the school and drives our ambition to nurture all our pupils and help them realise their potential as God intends.
The school day starts with an act of invitational collective worship (whole school or Key Stage based) to which all pupils, staff and any visitors in school are welcomed. In addition we invite parents to join two of our weekly collective worships and have regular opportunities for them to share special celebration times e.g. Harvest, Christmas, Christingle.
Daily collective worship is invitational and offers staff, children and visitors an opportunity for quiet reflection, stillness, music, prayer and celebration.
Each class has an area of reflection which also offers and encourages moments of quiet reflection or prayer during the day. Classes also have prayer boxes for the children to use when they choose to.
A three year rolling programme of collective worship has been developed using the Imaginor Roots & Fruits scheme of worship as its basis. This programme builds understanding of our three core values of Faith, Hope and Love through our 6 values per year, Bible stories, visiting speakers, news, events and celebrations.
The school environment has displays of the school values, and we have areas which promote quiet reflection and prayer.
Collective Worship Timetable
SMSC
SMSC stands for spiritual, moral, social and cultural. All schools in England must show how well their pupils develop in SMSC and at Weston Hills we use our school values, collective worship, a creative curriculum and our PSHE programme of study to address these areas.
Spiritual
Explore beliefs and experience; respect values; discover oneself and the surrounding world; use imagination and creativity; reflect.
Moral
Recognise right and wrong; understand consequences; investigate moral and ethical issues; offer reasoned views.
Social
Use social skills in different contexts; work well with others; resolve conflicts; understand how communities work.
Cultural
Appreciate cultural influences; participate in culture opportunities; understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity.
Secrets of Success
We use the eight 'Secrets of Success' across the school as a way of encouraging children to think about how they choose to live their lives, learn to live and work together in a community, and be ambitious for themselves.
We want children to understand that they are not born successful, that everyone has setbacks and failures and the first step to success is choosing. Success is about happiness, choices and feeling good about yourself. Successful people feel good about how hard they have tried, who they are, what they spend their time doing and the choices they have made in their lives.
Children keep a record of their progress and are awarded certificates to recognise when they have demonstrated one of the 8 Secrets of Success.
