Our Vision and Values
Our School Vision
Based on Christian teaching (Luke 10 v. 27), we want everyone to be kind, respectful, generous, thankful, humble and compassionate. We want children and staff to recognise their roles and responsibilities within the school community and the wider world and to be equipped to live life to the full.
We capture this sentiment through our guiding principle, which we call our school vision:
"Think for yourself and act for others"
This principle is deeply rooted in our theological heritage:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…Love your neighbour as yourself.’
Luke 10, v27
The Bible story of The Good Samaritan underpins our school vision and values
Our Values
The whole school community agrees that we believe the values we want to underpin our school vision are: Kindness, Respect, Friendship, Forgiveness and Thankfulness.
Window, Mirror, Door
We see our values linking in the following ways:
Our Window - how we value the world around us.
Our Mirror - These are the values by which we look at ourselves and reflect how we wish to behave.
Our Door - This is the fundamental value that we find from Christian teachings, which makes us want and desire to make a difference to each other and the world.
Our Window, Mirror and Door allow us to:
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| become aware of new experiences, | reflect on these and develop our own self-reflection, | respond with thoughts and deeds in school and the wider world |
Our Window
We focus on how we demonstrate these values in school through our various committees and curriculum, through work on anti-discrimination, awareness of other religious celebrations and through our positive behaviour policy. We have a programme to incorporate this into Collective Worship with links to Christian teaching and inviting organisations into school.
We teach our children through:
- Opportunities for children to be aware of the world in new ways, looking out into the world.
- Helping them to wonder about life's 'WOWS (things that are amazing).
- Helping them to think about life's 'OWS' (things that take us by surprise).
- Learning about life in all its fullness.
- Learning about Christianity and other religions
- Learning about British Values
Our Mirror
These are the values by which we look at ourselves and reflect how we wish to behave. The core values to focus on will be: Kindness, Respect, Friendship, Forgiveness and Thankfulness. At Ruswarp, these are principles which are embedded into our daily life at school in terms of our conduct and approach to our learning and each other. We link these principles to our Collective Worship, to Bible stories and to our positive behaviour policy and our rewards system.
We teach our children through:
- Opportunities to reflect on our own experiences.
- Looking inside ourselves.
- Considering life's big questions and reaching for some possible answers.
- Learning from life by exploring our own insights and those of others.
Our Door
This is the fundamental value that we find from Christian teachings which makes us want and desire to make a difference to each other and the world and go out ‘via the door’ to make a contribution to society, both in school, at home, nationally and internationally. We continue to focus on our identified Christian Values but also on the key Christian value of love and that we have to love and care enough to make courageous changes for the better.
We teach our children through:
- Providing opportunities for children to respond in a meaningful way.
- To move onto a new path or situation.
- Doing something creative to develop and apply our ideas.
- Learning to live out our beliefs and values
- Supporting the community
British Values Statement
At Ruswarp, we are deeply committed to upholding British values. We actively promote the fundamental principles of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs. These values are at the heart of our vision: Think for yourself and act for others — guiding our children to become thoughtful, responsible, and compassionate members of our diverse community.