Church School Distinctiveness

Believe and Achieve

Believe and Achieve is our school's vision.  This is underpinned by the story of The Good Shepherd who lost his sheep (John 10:14-18).  Even though returning to find his lost sheep was a dangerous mission, he put his faith in God, and believed in himself enough, to know it could be achieved.  The story of The Good Shepherd helps us to remember:

• We are all special and unique.
• We all care for each other.
• The more we believe, the more we achieve.

Our tapestry, depicting the parable of The Good Shepherd, was a labour of love involving people from across our whole community: children, staff, governors, parents and local community members.  It took many hours of planning, preparation and creation and takes pride of place in our school hall. Each and every sheep, created by hand by our children, is special and unique, just like we are.  The Good Shepherd cradles his lost sheep, now safely returned to the fold. 

We love Woolly dearly even though he can be rather mischievous.  He often explores the school at night and in the morning, children find him in the strangest of places.  Whenever this happens, we look after him and make sure he gets home safely.  In the picture above he appears to be stuck up a tree.

St James' Christian Values

 

As a church school we have strong links with our local faith groups and have adopted Respect as our core value, supported by the Christian values of being compassionate and having integrity. Our faith as a church school is reflected in our mission statement which expands upon our vision.

 

We aim to give every individual the opportunity and support to develop their full potential within our happy, caring, Christian community.

British Values

The British values of respect, tolerance, the rule of law, liberty and democracy run in parallel with our Christian values (respect, integrity and compassion).  Take a look at the document below for more information.

St James' Interpretation of Spirituality

At St James' school, spirituality is the wonder and appreciation of ourselves, others, our world and life's difficult questions.

How we appreciate ourselves, others, our world and life's difficult questions

Our children are very aware of how lucky we are and how rich our lives are compared to many others in the local and global community.  We address this with our children at an age appropriate level and embed opportunities into our lives which enable us to make small differences in the hope we can make big changes.

Every year we support a number of local, national and global charities:

• The British Legion (we sell poppies and poppy paraphernalia on site and hold an annual Remembrance Service)
• The Trussell Trust 
• Send a Cow
• Save the Children.

Each year, our school council also chooses a charity to support.  These have been many and varied over the years:

• The Dogs Trust
• Poole Hospital
• Disability Africa
• Cancer Research 
• World Wildlife Fund

to name but a few.

Being located in a small, rural village, we are very aware of the importance of community and we like to do our bit to contribute and hopefully enhance the lives of others.  Things we do include:

• Our fantastic hand bells group is well loved within the community and we play at a number of local events.
• Our May Fayre is popular with local residents, many of whom come along to watch our display of traditional dances.
• Our Easter Egg campaign was exceptionally well supported: we provided over 50 chocolate eggs and handmade cards to local residents who otherwise would have received nothing. Since then, some of these have enjoyed watching our end of year productions and taken part in our photo caption competitions.

In response to our children's concerns, we also have our own mini-recycling campaign: SAVE WASTE, SAVE LIVES!  We collect:

• KENCO coffee jar lids and refill packs – supporting Poole Hospital
• Keys and padlocks – supporting Routes to Roots
• Ring pulls from drinks cans – supporting the Purple Community Fund
• Stamps – Parkinson’s UK & District Branch
• Milk bottle tops – supporting Gift of Sight 
• Corks – supporting Dorset Scrap Store
• Old pens: ballpoints, felt tips, highlighters, markers, mechanical pencils, correction tape and fluid containers – supporting Childhood brain tumour research.

We are not only helping to save the planet, but also contributing to very worthwhile causes at the same time. We also recycle the yoghurt pots provided in our hot lunch meals and have reviewed our morning milk routine so we no longer use plastic straws.

How we work with our local churches

The school has close links to two local churches [St. James, Holt; and Holtwood Methodist Chapel] and ministers and parishioners from both these churches regularly lead our acts of worship. Each term we are visited by our amazing Open the Book team who bring the Bible alive through their lively acts of worship.

 

http://www.achurchnearyou.com/holt-st-james

 

https://www.candwmc.org.uk/churches/circuit-churches/holtwood.html

Collective Worship Policy 2018-2021