Here at St. John’s Primary School, we are proud to be a Church of England Aided primary school.  At our core we follow Christian Values in all aspects of our daily life in school which are strongly based on teachings from the Bible.  Our school’s Christian vision creates an environment where all pupils feel welcome and can flourish as God’s children.

 

Christian Distinctiveness in a Church School?

Long before the government became involved in providing education for everyone in our country, the Church of England had a vision that it wanted every parish to have a school for the education of poor children.

By 1900, there were 5,700 state-funded schools and 14,000 schools funded by the Church of England.

Today, approximately a quarter of all primary schools have a Church of England foundation, through which they strive to provide the highest standard of education possible, in partnership with the state.

From the earliest days, the purpose of Church schools was to enable children to flourish by providing a basic education and by developing their moral character.

It was always intended that Church schools should be open to all of the children of the parish.  The schools are not ‘faith schools’ in the sense of presuming that children are practising Christians or attempting to make converts of them.

The ethos of our school is based on distinctively Christian values and a vision which is rooted in the Bible.  We offer children an experience of faith through Collective Worship, links with St. John’s Church, our community and through all aspects of our daily life in school.

Our Religious Education Curriculum comes from the Dioceses of Durham and Newcastle
Diocesan Syllabus, which we adopted in 2018.  Our strongly Christian curriculum is taught using Understanding Christianity, from which our children can explore and develop their own ‘religious literacy’ skills, deepening their own knowledge and understanding of Christianity alongside a variety of world faiths.

Around school, we have signs and symbols reflecting the Christian heritage on which the school is built.  We also have areas for reflection and Prayer Spaces which contain school prayers and some prayers the children have created themselves.

In all things, at St. John’s we try to encourage an understanding of the meaning and significance of faith and promote Christian values and vision through the experience we provide for all our children and adults.