Vision & Values

Our Vision

 'Together we are Learning for Life!'

“So let’s choose for ourselves what is right.  Let’s learn together what is good.”

                                                                                                                       ( Job 34:4)

 ‘You show love for others by truly helping them, and not by merely talking about it.’

(1 John 3. 18 CEV)

We explicitly plan opportunities to develop children's understanding of what our Christian values mean and encourage our children to reflect on these values and apply them to different situations and dilemmas, so developing their own reference points or ‘moral compass’ and a strong understanding of right and wrong that will guide them through life.

We put our vision into practice through our Curriculum design and provision.  

Our knowledge -engaged, enquiry curriculum is rooted in the unique opportunities offered by our local community & expertise, local issues, and the historical and geographical context of our locality. They have opportunities to look beyond themselves, ask ‘big questions’ and think globally about life and develop an understanding of disadvantage, deprivation and the exploitation of the natural world. Our curriculum not only aims to provide children with the skills that they need now, but also the ability to be flexible, resourceful, reflective and resilient, helping them to adapt and problem solve as they grow up in an ever changing world.

Our School Vision:

• A school which has children and learning at the heart of everything we do
• A school which develops a strong sense of what ‘community’ means, where children are encouraged to use their skills to serve others and enrich the communities to which they belong. ‘You show love for others by truly helping them, and not by merely talking about it.’ (1 John 3. 18 CEV)
• A school where moral, social, spiritual, and cultural development underpins academic achievement and children develop their own moral compass and a strong understanding of right and wrong to guide them through life.“So let’s choose for ourselves what is right.  Let’s learn together what is good’. Job 34:4
• A school which offers inspirational learning opportunities which build skills for life
• A school which has an inclusive, bold and courageous curriculum which provides a range of enjoyable opportunities in which to participate and excel, within and beyond the school day
• A school culture that enthuses and empowers everyone to extend and enjoy their own learning
• A listening school where children and adults know their views are important, respected and acted upon
• A school with a warm, positive environment where we value effort, recognise success and celebrate achievements at all levels
• A school which develops a sense of team where all feel valued and respected

Our Core Christian Values

The person you are is an expression of your core values. They determine how you think and what you do. They shape your purpose and determine your vision. They establish your character. In fact, they are extremely important to who you are.

As a Christian School Community, we believe that the ethos of our school should be build on a foundation of core Christian Values. The staff, children and governors have agreed the following four core values that we feel support our school motto which is ‘To prepare children for life’:

Love

Integrity

Forgiveness, and

Equality

which will be promoted in school.

These core values will help us sustain an ethos which supports our aim for children to live happy, safe, healthy and fulfilling lives, to become confident individuals and responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society. 

We hope that our core values will help children understand that there are some central beliefs that people hold, and learn to fall back on these when making choices and decisions using these core values as an important guiding tool.

Our school badge, an image of a cross roads, shows our values pointing the ‘way’ to the cross in the centre, symbolic of Jesus and his teachings. This image helps children to see these elements as the foundations of their ‘moral compass’.

Our children believe that our school values are an important part of our school life and that they have a positive influence on what they think, feel and the choices they make. These quotes are taken from interviews with our children asking them to reflect on how learning about our values has affected them.

As a Church of England School, we undergo additional regular inspections by the Diocese. Our last inspection in May 2015, graded our school as 'outstanding'.

The inspector reported that:

'The pupils are extremely happy and feel very safe at the school within a strong Christian ethos. Both parents and pupils express their trust and confidence in their teachers, especially with regard to their academic progress, Christian teaching and pastoral care. It is clearly evident throughout the school community that there is a unique bonding of co-operative responsibility for each other, the local church and community'.

He also found that:

'The school’s strong ethos helps to nurture the children so they feel valued as individuals and a valuable part of the Christian family. This is based upon their well defined Christian values and school logo. The logo is based on the image of a four directional compass whereby the core Christian values are promoted as being the ‘four marks’ of the school community – a ‘Moral Compass’'.

Four Marks School’s Work Tackling Global Poverty

Recognised with Christian Aid Award  

From lobbying the council to work to reduce its carbon footprint and reduce plastic waste to spending time with residents of our local care home, pupils and staff at Four Marks Primary School have been working hard to take their place as global citizens.

Four Marks Church of England Primary School has achieved Bronze Award status in Christian Aid’s Global Neighbours scheme in recognition of its wide-ranging steps to love their global neighbour.

The accreditation scheme celebrates schools that are helping pupils learn about global poverty and the Christian responsibility to tackle it, as well as giving them the tools to play a confident part in creating a fairer world.

Mrs Stoodley said: “We are thrilled to be recognised for the work we have done as a whole school community to raise awareness of the extreme inequalities across our globe and perhaps more importantly, the steps we can take to address these. The pupils learn about global issues regularly and gain an understanding of injustice in our world. A visitor from the Toilet Twinning charity explained to the children that there are millions of people in the world without a toilet. They talked about what life is like without a toilet for these communities, with the implications for health, dignity and safety. Our School Council decided that they would like each class to work to twin our school toilets with toilets overseas; each class has been working hard to organise fundraising activities to achieve this target. Year 5 and 6 pupils have also planted a bee friendly garden in our school grounds after learning about the importance of bees, and why we should protect them. They planted bee-friendly plants and produced information leaflets which were displayed in school.

“We are developing links with a community in Uganda through the charity ‘Education Uganda’, and we at Four Marks will be twinned with Bwera Church of England School, in Uganda. We have started our journey by writing letters to the children of Bwera school to tell them about our school and to ask questions to find out more about them. We took part in Christian Aid’s scheme because it gives us a practical way of living out our school values of Love and Equality.

“Our world is increasingly connected and our hope is for our children to grow as responsible global citizens who care about issues such as the environment and access to healthcare. The children have especially enjoyed teaching each other about Environmental Issues such as reducing plastic and looking after our oceans. They have enjoyed the challenge of thinking up active and creative ways to raise money for their twinned toilets, which have included making Christmas Cards, stress toys, making chocolate toilets’.

Caroline Weir, Education Coordinator at Christian Aid, said: “The Global Neighbours Scheme was launched in partnership with the Church of England’s Education Office with a vision of helping young people understand more about the inequalities in this world and helping them to become courageous advocates for those who have no voice.

It’s wonderful to see how staff and pupils at Four Marks have taken this to heart and are seeking to tackle injustice.

Promoting British Values

In 2011, the Government defined British Values as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. We promote these values through our vision statement, curriculum, enrichment activities and our own school values (Love, Integrity, Forgiveness, and Equality).

Our Vision: 'Learning for Life!'

Value