Our Vision, Ethos, Values, British Values and Equality Targets

Our vision and aims for our pupils:

The children will be taught the academic and life skills to be able to achieve their potential in a nurturing Christian environment; with this resilience and courage they will learn to be caring towards others, know that all people should be equal and aim to be custodians of the wider world.

Our quote is taken from our chosen parable, ‘The Good Samaritan’ (Luke 10:27).

 ‘Love other people… as we love ourselves.’

Why our parable was chosen for Chelmondiston:

After school pupils visited France on a trip, they found a refugee who stowed away underneath the bus to Chelmondiston. The school children and community then helped get supplies for this refugee and the pupils were interested in why someone would take this risk. In this act of a desperate person the children saw beyond their own needs, the school and Chelmondiston and had a glimpse of the differences and needs of others in the wider world beyond their isolated peninsula home. Through the parable, we teach the pupils that you should look beyond differences to help those in need and strive for equality for all.

The children will be encouraged to remember the school vision and aims through our chosen quote and through the use of ‘The Good Samaritan’ parable and through these key aims which will be displayed throughout the school…

British Values

The Government set out this definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy, and these values were reiterated in 2014:  “to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.”

British values are promoted in so much of what we do at Chelmondiston Church of England Primary School, not least during our school assemblies, Religious Education and Personal, Social and Emotional aspects of Learning. We have thought carefully about how British Values and Christian values are entwined. 

The term ‘British values’ might be slightly misleading in that these values are integral to so many countries throughout the world – they differ in no way from the values of most western European countries, for example.

Being part of Britain

As a school, we value and celebrate the diverse heritages of everybody at Chelmondiston Church of England Primary School. Alongside this, we value and celebrate being part of Britain. In general terms, this means that we celebrate traditions, such as customs in the course of the year - for example, our Harvest Service, our Christmas celebrations and our whole school Easter egg hunt. We also value and celebrate national, charity and sporting events such as Children In Need, Red Nose Day and Remembrance Day. The children take great pleasure supporting charities, like Jeans for Genes Day, as well as where possible, raising money for a wide range of charities. 

Further, children learn about being part of Britain from different specific perspectives. We ensure that the children have a better understanding of what Britain is, learning more about:

• its capital cities and counties, its rivers and mountains
• the local area, specifically the farming and historical background of the peninsular and the rivers
• how ‘Great Britain’ differs from ‘England’ and ‘the United Kingdom’; where Britain is in relation to the rest of Europe and other countries in the world
• British history, Monarchs, rulers and significant events that defined society

The document below sets out how our pupils learn about the different British values, which includes our Christian context. 

Equality Objectives

Schools are required to publish information which is updated annually showing how they comply with the Equality Duty and to set at least one equality objective.  The need to advance equality of opportunity is defined in the Equality Act 2010 as having due regard to the need to:

• Remove or minimise disadvantages
• Take steps to meet different needs
• Encourage participation when it is disproportionately low

This extends to the following protected characteristics:

• Race
• Disability
• Religion or Belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Gender reassignment
• Age (as an employer, not regarding pupils)

Our Objectives for 2022-23 are:

• Equality of opportunity by ensuring that all pupils have access to vocabulary instruction
• To ensure that the range of texts and resources in school reflects societal cultural diversity
• To ensure that there is increased participation in sports clubs and after-school clubs by girls to match that of boys
• To ensure full access to all, regardless of social background, gender, ethnicity or disability, to a high quality provision of SMSC through our curriculum.  (Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural)