We aspire to be a school...

• Where our children are keen to come and have an eagerness to learn.
• Where children can develop their friendships and learn the social skills and independence that will support them as they learn and grow,
• Which provides a nurturing and safe environment and where we understand that the emotional and physical wellbeing of our children is paramount if they are to learn effectively.
• Where we are good at identifying aptitudes and abilities in our children and do our best to develop them
• Where we put an emphasis on creativity, fun and enjoyment to inspire and motivate our children to learn.
• Where we challenge and extend our children's thinking and have the very highest expectations of what they can achieve.
• Where we enable children to develop their thinking skills so they may use them in new learning situations.
• Where we plan and deliver a curriculum that teachers children how to learn not just what to learn.
• Where we prepare children well for the next steps in their education.
• Where we support each other to carry out our roles as effectively as possible.
• Where we have a culture of learning and everyone is keen to develop themselves and develop positive attitudes to learning.
• Which is forward thinking, innovative and open to new ideas.
• Which is well thought of and plays an active part in the local and wider community.

Created by all stakeholders (April 2013 - and revisited each year)

Values-based Education

At St Christophers Academy, it is our aim to raise standards by promoting a school ethos which is underpinned by core values. These values are intended to support the personal, social and spiritual development of every pupil throughout the school. Values-based Education aims to encourage children to become reflective learners within a calm, caring, happy and purposeful atmosphere. The values are reflected in our school vision, with the whole staff team and all pupils being involved in promoting values and identifying others who are ‘living the values’. The values-based approach aims to provide pupils with the self-esteem and confidence to explore and develop their full potential both in and out of school. The values will continue to play an important role throughout the children’s lives.

At St Christophers Academy, we currently have twelve values which are explored across a two-year rolling programme:

Year A                                                                      Year B

Autumn 1 – Friendship                                           Autumn 1 - Positivity

Autumn 2 – Gratitude                                             Autumn 2 - Respect

Spring 1 – Patience                                                 Spring 1 - Fairness

Spring 2 – Individuality                                           Spring 2 - Resilience

Summer 1 – Forgiveness                                        Summer 1 - Humour

Summer 2 – Co-operation                                      Summer 2 - Tolerance

Amongst our school values listed above, we have identified four Key Values which always run alongside our additional half-termly values: Tolerance, Respect, Positivity and Resilience. Although we believe all of our school values contribute greatly to the development of our children as positive role models, our four Key Values are significant in relation to the context of our school.

• Tolerance:  We are fortunate to have a pupil population with a diverse range of ethnicities, cultures, language and religions. It is important that our children are tolerant of these differences, taking what they have learnt about others into the wider world.
• Respect: A fundamental value which children must be taught; respect for themselves, each other and our environment.
• Positivity: Children need to be positive in order to succeed and achieve. We hope our pupils can spread messages of positivity as they move through our school and to those around them in their future lives.
• Resilience: We work hard and never, ever give up because this is essential if we are to achieve anything worthwhile.