Our School’s Christian Vision:

“Nurturing all to flourish and aspire.’

'For I know the plans I have for you... plans to give you hope and a future.' Jeremiah 29:11

Rooted in our Christian values of friendship, joy, respect, acceptance, well-being, and hope; ‘we are safe, we are ready, we are respectful’. Through our strong Christian ethos, everyone is nurtured to behave with integrity, taking responsibility for their actions whilst developing enquiring minds to achieve their potential to ‘flourish and aspire’.

Every word within our vision is significant.   

Nurturing: We recognise that children and adults must feel safe, loved and have a sense of belonging to flourish so nurturing must come first. 

All: This includes children, staff, parents and the wider physical and educational community.  As a fairly new church school in a new housing development, we feel it is our duty to support and bring together our the community.  We also want our children to understand their place in the wider world and their responsibilities as members of the local and global community. 

Flourish: We recognise that by educating the ‘whole person’ through our enriched curriculum, we will enable all pupils to flourish, echoing the Church of England’s Vision for Education, ‘life in all its fullness’ John 10:10 

Aspire: We want our children to believe they can achieve anything.  This is especially important for vulnerable learners who face additional barriers. 

Collective Worship

Collective Worship is highly valued as a time set apart in the school day and week, where the whole school community can gather together. It provides opportunities for the school community to arrive in worship with the right attitude, engage with their own spirituality and Biblical teachings and leave feeling refreshed and inspired.

Collective Worship is the ‘heartbeat’ of the school, beating away beneath everything that goes on in school. 

Worship is a ‘time to breathe’; a time when all can come together to find a space, silence and quietness to reflect on their own spirituality, values and place in the world. Just as breathing is vitally important to life, worship is a significant and sacred time in the life of the school; ensuring the time is valued to allow all to ‘breathe’. 

Collective worship gives the whole school community the opportunity to:

• Engage in an act of community

• Affirm and understand Biblical stories and the Christian values and attitudes which underpin our schools' foundation

• Celebrate special times in the Christian calendar and beyond

• Explore the big questions of life and respond to national events

• Foster respect and deepen spiritual awareness

• Be still and reflect

• Share each other’s joys and challenges

It is important that we remember collective worship should be inclusive, inspirational and invitational no matter where it is held or who is leading.

• Inclusive: something for children and teachers, of all faiths or of none to be able to join in with.
• Inspirational: a time in the day to think about the big questions in our lives; an occasion that supports the school community’s spiritual development.
• Invitational: an opportunity for those of any religious faith or none to focus and reflect on stimuli which allow the human spirit to respond with integrity.

Structure for the week:

Monday	Collective worship is linked to the current school values and our school vision.
Tuesday	Picture News is linked to a national or international issue that has been in the news. Picture News helps children connect current events with their own values and beliefs. It encourage pupils to think critically about the world around them, discuss big questions, and reflect on how news stories link to our school values and Christian ethos. This helps develop curiosity, empathy, and confidence to share their views while respecting the opinions of others.
Wednesday	Rev. Dawn and her clergy lead collective worship, often by working through Bible stories – which often link to the school's values.
Thursday	Celebration Assembly: A Celebration of Learning and Behaviour. Shine Awards are presented to pupils who demonstrate our school values, as well as being safe, ready, and respectful – showing 'The Monksmoor Way'.
Friday	In-Class Collective Worship: Class teachers lead the worship, giving children time to reflect, comment, discuss, and build upon the teachings from the week’s whole school collective worship.