Vision, Ethos & Christian Values

Our School Vision Statement

At Renhold VC Primary School, we have a nurturing home-from-home environment. Through our Christian values we build and reinforce the connections between all members of the Renhold family. As we work and worship together, we embrace, accept and celebrate all in our diverse school community; all have the ability to thrive and achieve.

In the pursuit of excellence, we retain the enjoyment and excitement of learning. Our passionate staff support children in finding and fulfilling their talents in an environment where they learn and grow, whatever their circumstances.

At the end of their journey at our school, our children leave as motivated, confident and empowered life-long learners.

Our Christian Vision Statement

Jesus’ promise to ‘bring life in all its fullness’ is our inspiration within our Christian community. This means that we will ‘Live God’s Love’ on a daily basis and, through our chosen Christian values, we will ensure that all within our school are treated with love and respect, enabling all to feel secure and valued, regardless of creed, colour and ethnicity.

Church School Status

We are very proud of our Church school status. Being within the diocese of St Albans, we benefit greatly from access to the support of its many advisors and resources in all areas of school management, standards, Religious Education and Collective Worship. In addition, we are very fortunate to have strong links with a number of Christian organisations in our immediate vicinity such as All Saints Church Renhold, Renhold Baptist Church, the Christian School’s Worker (Jo-anne Gaunt), Andy Little from the Open Air Mission and local friends who form Open the Book. This takes the form of weekly visits (Collective Worship and Curriculum teaching) special events in and out of school such as to The Life Path in Olney, Footsteps of Bunyan, Easter Story Live and much more (see slideshow below).

We consider the academic teaching and learning of religions to be one of the core subjects within our curriculum and adhere to the National Society’s Statement of Entitlement (see link below).

Our Christian Values

We believe that the teaching of Christian values contributes to the character development of our pupils and also to the quality of their community life. This also supports the development of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of children. Christian values are inherently rooted in the person and teaching of Jesus Christ and his invitation to experience life in all its fullness. In our collective worship we begin with the teaching and example of Christ as a starting point. We also reflect on how these core Christian values inform our approach to teaching British values.

For more information on Values Education and SMSC please look at the documents below.

At Renhold we are grateful for the support of the Diocese of St Albans. Our vision and values closely align with their own.

Living God's Love

Developing Spirituality

We believe that it is essential to provide all children and staff with a range of opportunities to help them develop spiritually. We believe that Spiritual development relates to fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of life which affect everyone and is not dependent on a religious affiliation. Spiritual development is not about becoming, more spiritual, it is about realising or becoming more and more aware of one's natural, innate spirituality. As a school we focus on the idea of 4 concepts of spirituality: self, others, world and beauty and beyond.

Our starting point is our pupils’ own ‘Big’ questions about life and from this we plan a series of encounters (Windows) that open up the possibility of reflection (Mirrors). Finally, the children are given an opportunity to put into action what they believe and value. (Doors)