St Paul’s School Vision 

St Paul’s School serves the whole community, whatever the individual faiths or beliefs of families are.  Our vision, 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 2.15

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 definition of the Christian Values:

There is no definitive list of Christian values.  Christians would say that their calling was to try to be followers of Jesus and to try to be more like Jesus.  Jesus endured pain and suffering, he showed wisdom, he was caring and compassionate, he served others (He washed his disciples’ feet) and he was thankful to God.

 Endurance

The difficulties and challenges of life can be endured because of hope in God’s love. God is loving and faithful and this truth sustains us when life is hard.

 Wisdom

Wisdom is about being able to see God’s work around us.  Wisdom is not about being clever or sharp.  It is about the ability to live with love and humility.

 Compassion

Compassion is about being alongside someone who is upset so that they don’t feel uncared for.  It is about a whole hearted acceptance and love for others. In the parable of the Prodigal Son the Father is not just forgiving. He is described as being filled with compassion. ‘But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.’ (Luke 15:20)

 Service

Service is about helping or serving other people.  When we serve other people by helping them, we recognise that we are part of a community of people who all need each other. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper. This shows us that anyone- leader or follower- should be willing to serve.

 Thankfulness

Thankfulness is a joy that erupts into praise.  We can be thankful for the good things God has given us and our community, we can be thankful for the wonders of our world, we can be thankful for others kindness.  Sometimes when we are sad, we can blame others, but thankfulness helps us see that there are still good things in our lives.

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 2024-2025

School Improvement Plan

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.