Our Christian Values
LOVE, COURAGE AND RESPECT
The School's values seek to underpin the Christian belief that we are all God's people and that we all matter. We endeavour to nurture excellence in all that we do: both in our learning and through our citizenship. We believe that everyone within our school community should be valued and treated with love and respect and that each of us has a right to grow and become the best we can be. Likewise, we believe that we each have a responsibility to show respect towards each other. Our shared values have been developed and are shared by the whole school community. They are central to what we believe within school and permeate our daily work and interactions, relationships and decisions. With these values and our belief that we have a responsibility to give our best in all we do, our children are helped to prepare for their life long learning journey.
Love is thinking about others before yourself.
Respect is valuing everyone and everything and celebrating our differences.
Courage is doing the right thing even when it is difficult.
Love
Love is the core Christian value that underpins all that we do at school. We are encouraged to love ourselves, others, God and his world. The Bible tells us that God is love and that those who live in love, live in God and God lives in them. (John 4:16)
The Easter story shows us the ultimate sacrifice of love: " for God so loved the world that he gave his only son." (John 3:16) Jesus showed selfless love when he laid down his life for everyone.
To carry the value of love in our hearts is to understand that: "Love is kind, love is eternal and love never gives up. It always trusts, always hopes and always continues strong. (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)
At our school, we show love and care towards one another, nurturing each other and supporting one another in love. We put others before ourselves without expectation of reward.
Respect
Respect is our second core Christian value because we believe that people are made in the image of God, that everyone is special, everyone's opinion matters, everyone's contribution is important, everyone's feelings should be considered and everyone's faith is sacred.
The Bible teaches us to respect differences in our world through stories like The Good Samaritan and Zacchaeus the Tax Collector. We use these stories to think carefully about how we treat others.
Within our school, we encouarge all, " to treat others as you would want them to treat you." (Matthew 7:12) Respect can mean simply treating each other with politeness and courtesy, and recognising that everyone's contribution is important and that everyone's feelings should be considered. We regularly discuss how respecting someone does not mean that we always agree with the other person but that we are prepared to listen and share our views without rudeness or impatience.
Courage
Courage is a core value for our school because Jesus has inspired us to be courageous and to stand for what is right in all circumstances.
At Catherington, we recognise the importance of building courage and resilience in our children to carry on when things get tough and to stand up for what they believe in.
We use Bible stories such as David and Goliath to teach us about being courageous and never giving up.
In the Book of Joshua, God tells his people to "Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened, for the Lord God is with you wherever you go." This reminds us to stand against injustice and to be the best we can be when things are difficult.
At our school, we have courage to stand by our beliefs and are committed to what is right and true.