As a Church of England Voluntary Controlled School, we have very close connections with St. Mary’s Church in Shincliffe. We have links with other churches in the Durham area too.
Christian Values for Schools
Our Christian Values are at the centre of everything we do at Shincliffe CE Primary School. They help us to live out our Christian Vision of ‘life in all its fullness’. Each half term, we focus on a different Christian Value. This is done explicitly through our Collective Worship time, but also throughout our curriculum. Children have regular opportunities to reflect on each value and to develop an understanding of the Value in action. Each Friday, in our Celebration Worship, we acknowledge children who have demonstrated these values.
Our visitors from St. Mary’s Church (Father Peter, Father Bill and Mrs Matthews) regularly lead our worship to help us to reinforce our understanding of each value as they share stories from the Bible. Children have opportunities to plan, prepare and lead worship for the whole school through class assemblies.
The Values we explore and strive to live by are:
We believe these values are empowering our pupils to develop their spirituality and guiding them in personal development as effective learners and good citizens. For more information please view the Christian Values for Schools website or our Christian Values Powerpoint for Parents.
During the Summer term we will be revisiting and further exploring the value of Thankfulness and Service.
Thankfulness
This term we will be focussing in school on the value THANKFULNESS. We hope your family will find these ideas helpful as you explore the value and have fun together.
Talk about THANKFULNESS together….
‘Count your blessings’ is an old saying, but it reminds us to be thankful and not takes things for granted.
As a family you may like to talk about:
- Remembering to let other people know when you are thankful
- Not taking things for granted
- Practical ways of showing gratitude
- How it feels when someone thanks you!
Read Together – The Man Who Came Back
Jesus was travelling along the dusty roads towards Jerusalem. At each village he was welcomed by people, happy to see him and listen to his teaching. But today, as he entered the village he saw in the distance a small group standing apart from the crowd. They were calling out, “Jesus, Master, help us, make us well.” These poor people had a disease called leprosy. They were terribly ill and no-one in the village wanted to go near them.
But Jesus didn’t ignore them. He stood among them and prayed for them. As each of them went on his way they began to notice that their whole bodies were healing up. They were so excited that they immediately rushed off to share their good news. Well, nine of them did. The tenth turned and fell on his knees in front of Jesus and thanked him for what he had done.
“I healed ten people with leprosy today”, said Jesus to the man. “Where are the others?”. But then he smiled “Well at least you came back to say thank you!”.
Service
This term we will be focussing in School on the value of SERVICE. We hope your family will find these ideas helpful as you explore the value and fun together.
Talk about Service together….
Jesus was called the ‘servant king’; his mission was to serve God and to serve all those people he met, through his teaching, his example and the way he led his life.
Who are the unsung heroes who serve us?
- At school
- At home
- In our clubs
How do we serve others?
- At school
- At home
- In our clubs
Read Together – Queens Esther serves her People
When King Xerxes, the ruler of the mighty land of Persia, was looking for a wife, Mordecai immediately thought of his cousin, the wise and beautiful Esther. Mordecai’s family was Jewish, but he warned Esther not to tell anyone
about this as he knew that there were powerful people in the land who hated Jews. Mordecai took Esther to the palace gates to be presented to the king, and, sure enough, as soon as King Xerxes saw Esther he fell in love with her, and the humble Jewish girl became a queen.
Mordecai often sat by the palace gates hoping to hear snippets of news about his cousin. For some time, all seemed well. But Haman, a wicked and powerful man in the court of King Xerxes, became angry with Mordecai because he would not bow down and honour him. Haman hatched a cunning plan. He began to tell the King bad things about the Jews living in his land and eventually he persuaded Xerxes that all the Jews should be killed. Queen Esther was beside herself with grief. She loved her people very much but felt powerless to help them.
King Xerxes noticed how terribly sad his queen had become, and begged her to tell him why she was so upset. Esther said she would explain if he and Haman would come to a feast that she prepared the following evening. When the grand banquet was over King Xerxes asked once again. “My dear Esther, you promised to tell me the reason for your sorrow.” Esther summoned all her courage in what might be her last act of service. She told the King about Haman’s plan to kill all of the Jews, which would include herself. King Xerxes was furious at the prospect of losing his beloved and beautiful Esther and ordered Haman to be arrested.
And so, it was that Esther’s name will be forever be remembered for her willingness to risk everything in the service of her people.
Fascinating Facts – OBE Award
The OBE, Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, is an honour and medal awarded to people who have served their country or local community, often as volunteers.
- The first honours were awarded by George V in 1917 to people who served their country in World War 1 but were not soldiers
- Over 800 OBE’s are now given each year
- OBE’s are awarded for service such as:
- Helping disabled children and their families
- Working on nature conservation projects
- Bring relief to carers of very sick relatives
- Protecting and caring for our country’s important buildings
- Providing animal welfare
SIAMS
In March 2018 we underwent a Statutory Inspection of the School as an Anglican School (SIAMS). We are delighted with the judgement of Outstanding that we received. For further information regarding the SIAMS reports please view our school performance page.
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