Christian Distinctiveness

Here at Christ Church CE Primary School we welcome children, their parents and carers into a friendly, happy and hardworking environment where respect for others and positive attitudes towards learning and behaviour are encouraged and nurtured. At our school all children are valued and all staff work hard to help every child reach their full potential. Our Christian vision of ‘Preparing, Sowing, Growing’ is rooted in our belief that every child and adult in our community deserves to flourish and that the values of a Church School are the best soil for them to grow.  Our ethos is realised through our focus on ensuring our Christian vision has an impact on the curriculum, bringing our Christian values to life and empowering our children to be changemakers in the world where they will grow up.  Our values are like a route map – by exploring them and travelling with them, we will reach our destination of seeing children and adults who flourish and make a positive contribution to society.  To see our Christian values click here.

Every child in our school is special. Our aim is to bring out the best in each of them. We believe passionately in recognising every pupil as a unique individual, each with their own gifts and talents.  Whilst we are open to people of all faiths and none, this belief in the uniqueness of each child and their value as part of God’s creation, means that we are looking to allow their identity and gifts to flourish and we will do all we can to allow that.  We are pleased that we were graded ‘Outstanding’ in our 2023 Ofsted report in the area of ‘Personal Development’.  We believe that the care and guidance offered at Christ Church CE Primary School, provided by our committed staff, will allow your child to flourish.  Our Church School inspection report (available by clicking here ) said “A breadth of extra-curricular activities are offered to further develop pupils’ personal talents and interests. Financial barriers are removed to ensure access for all. This is intrinsic to the school’s vision to grow pupils’ potential and aspirations, clearly reflecting the school’s Christian vision. As a result, the ambitious and inclusive Christian education enables pupils and adults to flourish.”

Our whole website will enable you to see what ‘Christian Distinctiveness’ means to us.  We understand that many of our parents and families will not come from a faith background themselves and will want to know what we are offering your children.  The Church of England has hundreds of years of involvement in education and we have a lot to offer.  A major area is in helping children to develop their understanding of themselves as ‘spiritual’.  Humans are universally equipped with a capacity for spirituality and our brains become more resilient and robust if this is developed.  This is not just religious thought but neuroscience (google the work of Dr Lisa Miller, an Ivy League psychologist).  Parents might rightly ask “What do you mean by spirituality?” and we believe that this definition here is helpful:Aspects of Spirituality.  You can click on the photos below for the document and for an example of how we use this to plan for a child’s spiritual development.

As a church school our ethos is underpinned by a commitment to Christian values. The ethos statement from our Instrument of Government states: