Vision, Ethos & Values

Our Mission Statement

 Inspiring care, respect and trust for all, in our Christian community 

We will achieve this through:
  • Delivering a strong Christian values-based curriculum that sees children develop into lifelong learners who are outward looking.
  • Promote a learning culture for all empowering everyone to grow in knowledge and understanding.
  • Inspirational leadership that empowers all stakeholders to be part of a learning culture and are committed to the pursuit of excellence and achieving the vision for the school.
  • Strong and effective partnerships with parents, the wider community and beyond.
  • Highly effective, creative teaching which motivates and inspires all children and supports them to achieve their full potential
  • An engaging, creative curriculum which challenges all children and is responsive to their needs and talents and actively encourages learning outside the classroom.
  • Providing a nurturing environment with a positive learning culture, that is safe, exciting, challenging and inclusive
  • Providing high quality professional training to our staff and using the latest research to drive our vision
  • Providing our children with many opportunities to develop resilience, independence and self-awareness; to ask questions, learn from their mistakes and take risks.

School Statement on Spirituality

To talk about spirituality is, essentially, to talk about something which is beyond words. 
This language of spirituality begins from a Christian understanding that everyone is a valued creation, individually and uniquely made by God, like pots made by a potter (Isaiah 64:8). Yet, in life things happen that impact on the physical ‘pot’ of life and create cracks that provide a glimpse of something ‘beyond’ the tangible. Christians would view this as an opportunity to relate to the Divine Creator God.
Cracks may be caused when something so good and breath-taking happens that the pot expands and cracks – the wows of life.
Cracks may happen when something challenging happens and threatens the comfort of everyday – the ows of life.
Cracks can also happen in the stillness and ordinariness of everyday – the nows of life, when a moment of stillness, a pause or prayer creates a crack in the normal, physical everyday.
 
At Benington we use this language to explore relationships with:
  •  ourselves
  •  others
  •  the wider natural world and beyond
  •  and offering the invitation to relate to God

Our vision ‘Inspiring care, respect and trust for all in our Christian Community is underpinned by the concept of 'Love your neighbour' from the story of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37. We care for everyone, and show love and respect for ourselves and others, setting high standards and trusting each other so that we can all flourish. The concept of ‘love your neighbour’ is taught in three strands:

1. Love your neighbour – treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself
2. Love yourself – self-care is important, look after yourself physically, mentally and spiritually
 3. Love the journey – whether academic or personal, Benington supports everyone’s journey to enable students and adults to flourish individually and collectively.

Ethos and Values

We are a small, caring church of England school where all pupils are valued, nurtured and encouraged to achieve their full potential.  Children are given the opportunity to develop their skills and talents through our exciting and creative curriculum.

All pupils are supported through our programme of nurture and counselling. Effort in all areas of the curriculum and for all children, is rewarded and self-esteem and self-worth are raised.

Links with parents are established early through a programme of pre-school to school readiness. All learning is seen as a partnership between pupils, school and respect for all, by all, is of the greatest importance.

At Benington C of E Primary School, we are courageous advocates in what is best for members of our community, locally and nationally. Please read more about this in our courageous advocacy document.

Courageous AdvocacyPromoting British values at Benington School

Big Questions

At Benington we encourage children to think about the world around them by asking questions about what they see, hear and experience. Humans have been asking ‘big’ questions for millennia: ‘How did the world come to be?’, ‘What happens after we die?’ and ‘Is there a meaning to life and, if so, what is it?’, to name just three. Many such questions are central to religions and worldviews, meaning that RE is a natural place to explore big questions and responses to them with pupils. We use Big Questions in collective worship and circle times to start discussions.

Open-ended questions have no right or wrong answers, but help to broaden children’s thinking processes, to develop their speech and language skills, and to build confidence in their ability to express themselves using words.

Our mission statement and core values underpin everything we do. We celebrate children and adults who encapsulate them through awarding hexagons.

 

 

In our newsletter we quote examples where our children have exemplified our core values.

One of our pupils receives a hexagon award.

One of our pupils receives a hexagon award.

 

Our values for are:

Autumn Term 

Spring Term

Summer Term

Care 

Respect 

Trust

Every classroom has a reflection area. These areas give us a place to focus our thoughts, reflect and pray. We can reflect on our Christian values or consider our thought of the week or Big Question. We link each value with our SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) education.

Care

Peter 5:7: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

 

  •  Caring for others makes you a more patient and understanding person. It also helps you to deepen your connection with that person. 
  • Caring for other people makes a positive impact on the world around us.
    Courageous advocacy relies on us caring for those around us.

caring pupils

Respect

Peter 2:17 “Show proper respect to everyone”

  •  Receiving respect from others is important because it helps us to feel safe and to express ourselves.
  • Being respected by important people in our lives growing up teaches us how to be respectful toward others.

  • Respect means that you accept somebody for who they are, even when they’re different from you or you don’t agree with them.
  • Respect in your relationships builds feelings of trust, safety, and wellbeing.

Trust

John 14:1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.”

 

  • We achieve more if we trust. 
  • If we can trust wholeheartedly that someone is there to support us in the toughest of times, it makes previously insurmountable challenges seem like ant hills. Suddenly, what was daunting is now something that is achievable.

pupils trusting each other

Benington Bees

busy bees logo

 To support our pupil’s understanding of the Values, we have introduced the Thought of the Week. Each ‘thought’ links to the Value, allowing the children to think deeply about its meaning. The ‘thoughts’ encourage children to reflect on their own behaviour as well as others.

 Each week the children’s behaviour will be celebrated during our whole school sharing assembly. Children who have tried hard to incorporate the Thought of the Week and Value into their learning will become Benington Bees. Children have the opportunity to nominate a class member to become a Benington Bee.