Term Four, Week Four
Our school has been using a resource called Values For Life as a basis for our Collective Worship for the past 6 years. The resource promotes 18 values in a 3 year cycle, each one lasting one ‘short’ term (a half-term in most people’s thinking!)
Most of these values can be said to be ‘human values’ and inclusive for people with different or diverse faiths, and also for those with no faith. As a Church of England school, however, we have rooted these values in stories from the Bible. As a Collective Worship resource these Christian values have been taught as part of our Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education programme.
But there are a few areas in which we see an opportunity to improve what we do…
· 18 values are too many to remember (when we are asked about our priorities)
· Using the full resource lacks the ‘personal’ touch where we as a community in North Nibley say “This is what we stand for. This is what makes us unique.”
· By having fewer core values, and spending more time on them, we will be able to maintain the centrality of Christian, bible-based teaching and add to this a greater range of illustrative stories, including those drawn from other cultural and religious traditions.
You can read the Biblical basis for each value by CLICKING HERE, together with the range of questions / challenges that we reflect upon when each becomes our focus for the term. These summaries contain extracts from ‘Values for Life’ published by Gloucestershire’s Diocesan Education Department, and also the website of the National Society.
I invite you to read these summaries and vote for those that you would like to see as core values in the education of the children in North Nibley. You can vote for as few or as many as you like ON THIS VOTING PAGE. You can even suggest your own ‘Value’.
Voting closes June 30th and the results will be shared in July. The results will be implemented from September 2013. The values you help us to select will make a unique and distinctive statement about our spiritual and moral purpose, and affirm our distinctiveness as a Church of England School.
Thank you.
Paul Batchelor,
Head Teacher