July Value – Courage

November Values – Justice

When thinking about ‘justice’, some people think first about giving wrongdoers the punishment they deserve. However, that would be a one-sided picture of justice. Justice also means giving all people – particularly the poor and oppressed – what it is right and fair for them to have: life, health, freedom and dignity. It is about acting out of a concern for what is right. It is about social justice, especially for those who suffer most and are least able to protect themselves.

The Bible emphasises that ‘The righteous care about justice for the poor’ (Proverbs 29:7). Isaiah says: ‘Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow’ (Isaiah 1:17). Justice is the ‘plumb line’ by which society is
measured (Isaiah 29:17).

Justice is not about a culture which encourages everyone to insist on their own rights at the expense of others. It is about a community that knows that everyone’s well-being is bound up with that of everyone else. A commitment to justice leads to opposition to injustice in whatever form it may be found. Justice is a pre-requisite of peace: without justice there can be no peace.

As part of our weekly assemblies we will be exploring themes of:

• Justice for the poor
• Standing up for others when they are treated unjustly
• Making a difference
• Including others.

October Values – Creation and Creativity.

We value creativity greatly as a school.  We offer the children many opportunities to be creative in our curriculum.  In this value we ask the children to consider that they are co-creators with God in the world.  All life is ‘a gift’ entrusted by a loving creator God to human kind for a purpose.   This purpose is glimpsed as the creative spirit in each of us learns to value, explore, celebrate and enjoy the wonderful world that we live in.

During this value we will explore questions such as:

• How amazing is our world?
• How can we take care of our world?
• How can we better enjoy our world?

September Values Collective Worship

• Why am I special to my class, what do I bring to my class community?
• What does it mean to co-operate in my classroom?  How does working together help my learning?
• How are we part of the local community, Church community, global community?

From a Christian Perspective: The foundation of Christian Community and co-operation is Christ’s self giving on the cross, the supreme demonstration of his love for all. We love because he loved us first. For the first Christians, this was expressed in a genuine common life with shared meals, shared possessions and practical support for the poor. The Christian church today continues to serve not only those within the Christian community but any who are in need.

May Values Collective Worship

Humility has a central place in Christ’s teaching.  It is contrasted with pride, where people ascribe to themselves the honour and glory which is God’s alone.  Ultimately, pride seeks to compete with God, whereas humility acknowledges that God is God and that we should live in trusting dependence upon God.
Jesus taught his followers that if they wished to enter the Kingdom of Heaven they must be like children.  This is no sentimental picture of children, who are quite capable of arrogance and the desire to see the whole world revolve round them.  Jesus is challenging people to become like those who have no legal or social standing, to become like servants.  Throughout his teaching, Jesus uses a series of images and examples to encourage his disciples to ‘take the lower place’, or ‘to wash each other’s feet.’

April Values Collective Worship

This month we are thinking about Happiness. Considering how we can be happy, how we can make others happy and how we can make our school a happier place to be.

March Values Collective Worship

Wisdom is the theme for this months assemblies.  Wisdom is insight into the way life works: a proper understanding of the consequences of our thoughts, words and actions and an awareness of the true value of things.  It is rooted in proper reverence for God who is the source of all life and all values.  We will be helping the pupils consider how wisdom differs from being clever.

The opposite of wisdom is foolishness, which is a wrong understanding of life.  Jesus tells the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21).  Although this parable may seem to be mainly about greed and obsession with money, at a deeper level it is about putting our trust or faith in the wrong things.  It’s about missing the point; it’s about being a fool.  The fool does not realize that his soul is ‘on loan’ from God, who can require it back whenever he likes.  The fool thinks that the aim of life is to ‘be happy’ and he thinks that you can gain happiness by doing what you want and be gaining more and more possessions.  The wise person recognizes their own limitations, trusts in God and understands that there is more to like than may be seen on the surface.

February Values Collective Worship

Generosity is the theme for this month.  This works really well with Alms giving which is one of the ways we prepare for Easter during Lent.  Every class is thinking of ways to be generous and raise money during Lent to help support the community of Tambogrande.

January Values Collective Worship

This month we will be exploring the theme of “Trust”.

We will be thinking about what it means to trust each other.  How we build trust and how we can start to mend trust when it is broken by the way we treat each other.  We will be looking at role models with in the school community and in the wider world that demonstrate examples of different kinds of trust.

From a Christian perspective – Trust is the basis of all stable relationships, including a person’s relationship with God.  It is rooted in truth, and will grow through consistent experiences of reliability and integrity.  God’s commitment to humanity is seen in his willingness to trust ordinary people with carrying our his purposes through history>

December Values Collective Worship

During Advent we will be exploring the theme of Peace in class and in our assemblies.

November Values Collective Worship

This month we are considering “Justice” in our school liturgies. As a school we encourage the children to take responsibility for each other and ensure that they are treating each other fairly.

In the Wider world we make the pupils aware of issues of global justice such as “fair trade”. During the year as a school we support a range of charities.  Recently this has included Cafod and a local food bank, as part of our Harvest Celebrations.  In the near future we are holding a cake sale event for Children in Need.  All these activities are helping the children to consider global Justice and support them in helping to make a difference in the world.

“We cannot close ourselves off to information and ignore the fact that millions of people are out there suffering. I honestly want to help. I don’t believe I feel differently from other people. I think we all want justice and equality, a chance for a life with meaning. All of us would like to believe that if we were in a bad situation someone would help us.”  – Angelina Jolie

A Christian perspective

The justice that is revealed by the Bible is always seen in the context of love. It includes the call to take responsibility for one another, especially the poor and oppressed and see that no one is excluded from the essentials of life.

“He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God”  –

October Values Collective Worship

We are thinking about Community and cooperation this month.

We have had an especial focus on how when we work together we can achieve much more than by ourselves.

September Values Collective Worship

We think about how we apply the value to our lives by looking at examples of how other people live the value and exploring drama, stories, poems, pictures and songs about the value.

The Value for the month of September is Creativity. This month the value will also link with some of the Religious Education that is being covered across the school.  We will be considering:

• How we use our creativity to support our learning.
• How we look after our environment and the created world.
• How we feel about God’s world and the beauty, power and mystery of the world God has created.

A Christian Perspective

Christians see all life as a ‘gift’ entrusted by a loving creator God to humankind for a purpose. This purpose is glimpsed as the creative spirit within each person as they learn to value and explore, celebrate and enjoy this world with all its Mystery and diversity.  With this gift comes a mutual responsibility to ensure creation is not spoilt, but rather sustained and shared by all.