St Paul’s School Vision
St Paul’s School serves the whole community, whatever the individual faiths or beliefs of families are. Our mission, working together, is to shape the child, and therefore the adult, drawing on Christian insights, to understand how to live fully and ‘shine as lights in the world.’ Philippians 2.16
Values:
Demonstrating Endurance: Strive for academic excellence by challenging and supporting all children in their learning
Demonstrating Wisdom: Provide a broad curriculum that encourages curiosity and a love of learning
Demonstrating Compassion: Give excellent care and guidance to help children be safe, to develop physical well-being and emotional maturity
Demonstrating Service: Encourage children to become good neighbours and citizens
Demonstrating Thankfulness: Nurture a lifelong attitude of awe, wonder and thankfulness.
Our vision is founded on the Great Commandment in the Bible:
“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Mark 12. 29-31
St Paul’s School Three Year Vision (2022-2025):
Our St Paul’s 3-year vision seeks to provide clarity on what we are aiming to achieve over the medium term and acts as a bridge between our long-held School Values and what we are seeking to achieve year by year in our School Improvement Plan.
1. Ensure St Paul’s delivers a broad curriculum with strong links through the years that establish both high levels of thinking and moments of awe and wonder to inspire all.
2. Ensure all children consistently reach high reach high levels of achievement across the curriculum, particularly the disadvantaged and SEND Pupils, allowing as many as possible to exceed National Levels in Reading, Writing and Maths, in-line with our value of academic excellence.
3. Ensure teachers’ subject, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge consistently builds and develops over time.
4. Sustain a love of reading culture for all, supported by the delivery of a strong Early Reading programme, to give all children the best chance to access the whole curriculum.
5. Embed our Christian values across the life of St Paul’s that allows all in our community to flourish and grow into good neighbours and citizens serving the common good.
6. Maintain a Safeguarding culture throughout the school community of “constant awareness and vigilance” to ensure all children are safe.
St Paul’s School Improvement Priorities 2022-2023
Living the Values- creating a rich experience for all.
What makes St Paul’s children “Shine as Lights in the world”? Teachers and Governors have given much thought to the things that they are most proud of at St Paul’s that reflect our values.
The response from this process provides evidence of a truly rich experience of life at our school that allows the children to “Shine as Lights” not just during their time at St Paul’s but for many years afterwards.
Demonstrating Compassion: Give excellent care and guidance to help children be safe, to develop physical well-being and emotional maturity
- I am welcomed at school every day. I know routines for starting the day – adults help me settle.
- I know what is acceptable behaviour; this is supported by clear messages in the room; collective worship; circle time PHSCE; policy posters around school; individual / class behaviour plans. I know the school communicates with my parents/carers
- I can approach older pupils and staff who will help me if I need support.
- I know who to ask for help if I am hurt or feel bullied. I know that adults will listen to me or I can use a ‘worry box’ to let someone know.
- I am given some class responsibilities to show that I can be reliable and care for others. ( monitors/ class manager)
- I learn how to eat healthily and the school provides fruit or veg; a healthy school lunch to help me with my choices.
- build positive relationships with adults and peers and learn to manage emotions.
- Individual behaviour plans
- Reflection sheets
- Reward systems (Moving up charts/house points/dojos)
- Links with a specific adults
- PE extra-curricular (Fun run/Swimming gala/football/netball/interhouse)
- PE equipment/Music equipment for the playground.
- School council (Pupil voice)
- Chicks.
- Meditation sessions through the Church, Y6 daily meditation, Y5 ten minutes peace meditation, Y6 gratitude journal
- Sports opportunities: swimming, CSSA inter-school sports, fun-run
- External sleep specialist session
- PSHE curriculum
- SRE curriculum
- Playground buddies
- Responsible ICT use: parent session, internet safety week
- Restorative conversations post behavioural incident
Demonstrating Thankfulness: Nurture a lifelong attitude of awe, wonder and thankfulness
- I am given opportunities to visit the amazing places which London and beyond have to offer
- I am given opportunities to reflect on and voice my appreciation of myself and others and their successes – Great Wall of Positivity, WOW cards, Reflection Book
- I have witnessed the wonder of nature and creation – hatching eggs and butterflies and keeping chickens, visiting the seaside, observing the changing seasons
- I take part in celebrations of thankfulness throughout the year – Harvest, Remembrance, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Easter, daily prayers before lunch
- I have opportunities to express and challenge myself through music, art, drama, dance, sport and after-school clubs
- Cultural capital (Art/Classical music/Opportunities for discussion around morals/Class parliaments)
- Opportunities to present to parents/classmates.
- Charity work
- Regular reflections on what we are thankful for/identifying service.
- Write prayers
- Explicit opportunity to reflect on one’s life. E.g.: writing on back of poppies for display.
- School trips.
- Gratitude journals
- Church sessions
- Residential trips: Y5 Brancaster, Y6 Isle of Wight
- Unique trip opportunities
- Y6 leaving ceremonies
- Club participation: chess, running
- Teacher’s sharing personal experiences
- Community: FOSPA events
Demonstrating Service: Encourage children to become good neighbours and citizens
- I am taught about sharing, turn-taking and looking after my classmates.
- If someone is sad or hurt, I know how to look after them and I know which adults to approach to help.
- I am learning how to look after my class and school environment (resources are clearly labelled).
- I am aware that there are people less fortunate than I am.
- I am learning to be a thoughtful citizen by School Council, reading and writing prayers, reflecting on how to care for our immediate environment and the planet
- Participate in school events e.g. International evening.
- Modelling positive behaviours
- Assemblies/collective worship
- Respecting our environment
- Charity work (House captains/School council/Bowa/ Carol singing
- Class contracts
- Recycling (Other green initiatives)
- Top table-lunchtime
- Lunch helpers
- Church helpers
- Church sessions
- Y5/6 taking Y1/R to church
- Mixed seating arrangements: Y5 random seating arrangement
Demonstrating Endurance: Strive for academic excellence by challenging and supporting all children in their learning
- Children learn to settle and concentrate in a school environment, focus for increasingly longer periods of time.
- Build positive relationships with adults who are not primary carers.
- Draw upon learning behaviours in order to be resilient – be proactive in their own learning- resourceful and show initiative; to reflect in more depth their outcomes and strive to improve.
- Environment of BLP (growth mindset)
- Rewards for positive attitudes to learning
- Success criteria outlined for each piece of learning
- Self/Peer assessment
- Challenge Tops table/X factor
- SATs prep
- Extra support for learning
- Open ended challenges praise, assemblies, good work on Variety of learning display, Dux trophy, environments and experiences: trips
- GT intra-school competitions
- Celebrating achievements: verbal
Demonstrating Wisdom: Provide a broad curriculum that encourages curiosity and a love of learning
- Explore my own interests and imagination and share these with their peers.
- Children have access to trips, visitors and experiences. Whether in the immediate locality or further afield.
- Opportunities to act in class assemblies, plays and performances
- Hook lessons.
- Investigations (Particularly Science and Maths).
- Themed weeks- Science/Maths or other curriculum week.
- International evening.
- Hatching Chicks.
- After school clubs, Gardening (Dig It), Breakfast club, Summer school.
- Shining Stars/Head teacher’s awards/Constellations/Galaxies.
- Inter-house contests: tops tables, sports contests, swimming gala.
- P4C (Philosophy for Children) Y5 discussion sessions.
- The Week newspaper delivery.