Our Christian Vision
"With God, there is no limit to what you can do. There is no obstacle you can't overcome. Through Him, all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)
Our school Christian vision is based on the bible story: David and Goliath.
David and Goliath dates back all the way from the 4th century. We know the story behind David and Goliath, how David took down Goliath regardless of him being such a giant and despite everybody being too terrified to challenge Goliath.
The story of David and Goliath powerfully resonates with our community at St James. There are 4 powerful life elements from David and Goliath that our St James community have pulled out and use in our everyday life.
We focus on a positive growth mindset and have a culture where it is OK to make mistakes – as long as you learn from them! Be brave and give every learning task your best shot. If a learning task is challenging – then good! Learning isn’t supposed to be easy all of the time and our teachers are doing their job well if they present us with a challenge. If you succeed, fantastic, if you don’t that’s OK but think about what you have learnt from the experience. Get up and start again!
We are not to be overwhelmed by our fears. Supportive staff help us through our challenges. We also have two pastoral care officers at St James, so if we have any worries in our lives we have people who can guide us. Some of us like to keep feelings diaries when we need to journal our fears and experiences; the pastoral team help us to explore these.
Believe! It’s a huge part of being at St James. We are encouraged to have big dreams for ourselves and then to believe in our own abilities to achieve well. That’s not always easy as we might not have the confidence to do this. To help us develop our confidence we have opportunities in school to be a part of our Junior Leadership Team, Ethos Team, Eco-Team, Children’s Chaplains and Prefects (Y6). Each week we also discuss ‘The Big Question’ which helps us to discuss and debate our thoughts, opinions and feelings on important matters in class. This is a safe place for us to share and develop our confidence.
We don’t make excuses! Using a growth mindset we remind ourselves that we can learn through our mistakes to achieve. If you believe in yourself and have big dreams then you can achieve.
To help us to be grateful for what we already have, we fundraise for a variety of charities and for school. We have raised money for local charities such as a pet shelter, homeless shelter and food bank as well as national charities such as Children in Need, Macmillan Cancer Support, Comic Relief and the Poppy Appeal. This academic year, each phase is going to choose a charity that is important to them and raise funds.
Our Christian vision reminds us that “With God there is no limit to what you can do. There is no obstacle
you can’t overcome. Through Him all things are possible” (Matthew 19.26).
We share this at the start of every worship session to remind us that it is possible. It’s possible for you and possible for me!
