School Values and Home and School Collective Worship

Our Christian Vision

‘I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.’ (Philippians ch 4 vs 13)

As a nurturing Christian community at Barton, sharing a core set of values, our vision is to engage and to inspire our pupils to become creative and independent thinkers, evidencing a love for learning and a thirst for knowledge. We aspire to promote the skills needed to persevere with learning challenges and the curiosity to enquire further. Our Christian ethos and school values, focus on developing children’s moral, spiritual, social and cultural understanding. These are woven, like a golden thread, into every aspect of school life.

With God’s help, our Christian vision binds us together from the moment of arrival until the final day of departure. All members of the Barton School community are bathed in and supported by our Christian ethos: implicitly in our core values and personal relationships; explicitly in the Religious Education, Collective Worship, PSHE and Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development opportunities that are a part of our everyday life.

We base this vision on the parable of The Sower (Matthew 13 Vs 1-23) which supports us to make good choices so that we can grow and flourish in our learning and in our relationships. This parable resonates with our historical heritage as an ancient site of farming and agriculture, a legacy that continues to this day through the Countryside Restoration Trust and Burwash Manor with whom the school has forged close links.

Our School Values

Values are the basis of our personal development, they make us who we are. Christian values are at the heart of Barton CofE (VA) Primary School: they shape every aspect of school life. Christian beliefs permeate our values, providing the rationale for what we do and why we do it. In our church school our values are earthed in the wisdom and understanding of the Christian faith.  Our key school values of RESPECT (Mark 10:14) and INTEGRITY (Titus 2 vs 7) are underpinned by Compassion (2 Colossians 3:12) and Thankfulness (Psalm 28:7), Courage (Deuteronomy 31:6) and Determination (Hebrews 12:1), Honesty (Zechariah 8:16) and Forgiveness (Mark 11:25).

All children and adults understand the key values that we teach and expect to be seen in everyday life and in our dealings with each other. These are embodied in our Barton Bs which are the bedrock of our daily school life: be safe, be respectful, be learners.

Be Safe

We listen carefully to instructions

We are calm and orderly

We take care of our school

We consider our impact on others

We are in the right place at the right time

Be Respectful

We are kind, we are polite, we are honest

We treat others as we would like to be treated

We show compassion and empathy

We recognise and celebrate individuality and difference

We value teamwork

Be Learners

We listen, we enquire, we think

We let others learn

We persevere and are not afraid of making mistakes

We actively challenge ourselves and ask for help if we need it

We come to school ready to learn

Our values are based on Christ’s teaching in Matthew 7:12 ‘Do to others, whatever you would like them to do to you.’ and all parts of our school community embrace this ethos and use it as a starting point for their work, speech and actions in school. This Golden Rule is also explored in LKS2 RE, Emmanuel Project, as part of St. Paul’s Mission.

Collective Worship

At Barton Church of England Primary School, Christian values are embedded in our Collective Worship planning and delivery.  Half termly themes and values are delivered through a beginning-of-the-week, whole school launch, followed by more intimate classroom assemblies, Church-based weekly gatherings led by our head teacher and local church representatives and end of week family celebrations.

During collective worship we reflect upon the skills and talents of those within our community as well as more wide spread inspirational advocates of courage and vision (2Timothy 1:7).  We use Imaginor, Roots and Fruits as our starting point, as the themes resonate strongly with our wider school aims and Christian ethos.  We ensure regular opportunities for the whole school and community to come together in shared moments of reflection and prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) and value these times as vital elements of our cohesion and tolerance (Colossians 3:13), deepening our understanding of our school as a vital element of a community jigsaw.

We actively seek to include a wide variety of stimuli within each Collective Worship event, promoting interactivity, visual, oral and shared experience wherever possible.  We invite those from Christian and other traditions to share their world views (Luke 6:37) and priorities with us and make sure that there are regular opportunities for parents and children's families to join us and take part in our gatherings.

We ensure that our acts of worship include a prayerful call and response each day, accompanied by the lighting of a candle to focus attention and create an atmosphere of quiet thoughtfulness, with prayers, moments of quiet reflection and singing standard elements in most assemblies. 

In keeping with our legal obligations set out in the 1988 Education Act, Collective Worship at Barton takes place every day and is “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character.”

Our daily act of collective worship, aims to give pupils and school staff the opportunity to:

• Express praise and thanksgiving to God (2 Chronicles 5:13)                                                                                                                        
• Foster respect, celebrate differences, learn from each other and deepen spiritual awareness
• Reflect on the character of God and on the teachings of Jesus (1 John 4:8)
• Affirm Christian values and attitudes (Matthew 5:3-12)
• Share each other's joys, successes and challenges
• Celebrate our Christian heritage and special times in the Christian calendar (Luke 22:19-21)
• Include opportunities for those of any or no faith to ponder the bigger questions of human existence and to consider their own beliefs and priorities in a Christian context.