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Thursday 18 August 2022

Values for Life

The Importance of Teaching Christian Values

Schools and teachers are a major influence on the developing values of children and young people.  Children learn values at school from relationships, everyday classroom interactions from the examples set by adults and from more formal attempts led by teachers to engage in values education.

While values education has always been seen as an important part of our ethos at Tardebigge CE First School, it now has an enhanced profile and as a school we encourage all staff, governors and children to reflect on and articulate their values with much greater clarity and openness than in the past.

How do we convey values?

Values will be communicated through:

  • the leadership of our school; mission statement and aims of our school which all reflect our ethos. It is essential that our school environment is a safe and caring place where children can share, think about and experience ethical enquiry and cultivate habits required for good moral conduct. All relationships in the school should offer a model of values in action.
  • teachers’ example and their use of moral language, which will help pupils to internalise ideas of what is acceptable and not acceptable in the living, working community of the church and society as a whole.
  • when a love of and respect for classroom values is encouraged so that children learn to resist the temptation to, for example, bully or to take more than their fair share at school, in order that they can come later to appreciate the global consequences of greed and exploitation
  • the subjects of the curriculum
  • collective worship which is an opportunity for the school to explore together community/Christian values
  • learning that helps pupils to comprehend imaginatively the equal importance of other people and helps individual pupils in the search for meaning and purpose of life
  • teaching methods that convey respect for people, respect for truth, acceptance of responsibility for actions and a concern for justice and fairness.
  • links with Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning and Global Citizenship.

Our approach to teaching values

We promote the teaching of values through:
  • adults using a range of questions to help the whole school community reflect on each value
  • planned opportunities for collective worship which raises awareness of each aspect of the value
  • Bible stories that are relevant to the themes of each value
  • stories from world faiths, which illustrate the values
  • subjects taught in the curriculum support understanding of the values in concrete situations
  • a selection of practical follow-up classroom activities which engage and inspire

SMSC

All schools in England must show how well their pupils develop in SMSC. At Tardebigge we are dedicated to developing the whole child. We want our children to grow and mature into responsible and positive members of the community. We believe that the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development of our children is a central part of our purpose, along with ensuring excellent standards in the classroom.

Spiritual

Explore beliefs and experience; respect values; discover oneself and the surrounding world; use imagination; reflect.

Moral

Recognise right and wrong; understanding 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 influence; participate in cultural opportunities; understand, accept , respect and celebrate diversity.

Our mission is to make sure that SMSC is developed through the whole school approach, through the taught curriculum, the pastoral and collective worship programme and through visits in and around the local community. We believe that  our children will gain independence which in turn will encourage our children to solve problems in the wider world if SMSC is at the heart of our school. Watch out in the newsletter for updates on what is happening in school.

Click on the link below to view Miss Hudson's presentation on spirituality. The children have been discussing in class what makes them feel spiritual and they have been sharing their thoughts with their peers. I feel it when our children sing. I get goose bumps when I hear all our children singing  together! What inspires you?

Spirituality assembly website.ppt

Why Christian Values?

Meaning, ethics and vision must shape the practice of education and church schools have the responsibility to ground their values in the teachings of the Christian Faith and particularly the values found in writings which tell us about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  It is our Christian tradition which gives our values content and the stories we share with children give the values moral substance.

At Tardebigge CE First School we encourage our children to think about how Christian Values are the same or different from the 21st century values of a secular society and the values we have chosen to promote at our school.  Whilst these values are distinctively Christian, they will be shared by community schools and with other faiths.

The five core values our school has chosen to primarily focus upon, though not exclusively, were decided upon by representatives from groups across the whole school community; children, teachers, teaching assistants, governors, lunch time supervisors, FOTS members and church representatives. They are:

HAPPINESS AND JOY,

RESPECT,

HONESTY AND TRUST

PERSEVERANCE

COMPASSION

Our other Christian values we promote and monitor are:

courage, appreciation, hope, justice and unity.

Jesus' Golden Rule

Jesus' Golden Rule is,

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." We should not say or do anything unless we can answer "Yes" to the question, "Would I want that said or done to me?" Neither should we fail to do the good things we would expect of others, whatever their background, culture or religion.