The children and staff of St. Chrysostom’s welcome you heartily to our wonderful school. We are a Christian school serving a colorful and diverse local community.
We deeply value and actively celebrate the many religions and cultures housed within our school. St.Chrysostom’s is a thoroughly inclusive school every child is engaged, enthused, and challenged to meet their full potential. Our children leave St. Chrysostom’s as independent learners with a rich curiosity in the world, having achieved high expectations academically, and developed their spiritual, moral, social, and cultural learning.
At St. Chrysostom’s, we are passionate about providing all of our children with a creative and exciting curriculum, which captures their interest, inspires them to learn, and aspire to achieve highly. Our curriculum promotes respect, tolerance, and diversity. Children are encouraged to express themselves through discussions, debates, and consultations. The RE (Religious Education), PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education), Citizenship, and SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) provision is embedded across the curriculum and underpins the ethos of our school. Children learn about all major faiths and visit places of worship wherever possible. They are also taught about how to stay safe when using the internet.
Although serious incidents involving radicalization have not occurred at St Chrysostom’s to date, it is important for us to be constantly vigilant and remain fully informed about the issues which affect the region in which we teach. All staff is fully aware of the school’s safeguarding procedures and know-how to refer any concerns through the Child Protection/Safeguarding Lead Teachers.
At St. Chrysostoms our vision is for all pupils to become confident and motivated: enabling all to reach their full potential as children of God and responsible citizens skilled for the 21st century.
Every child deserves to enjoy school life. Through our values, we create a safe, inclusive and caring environment in which all learners can thrive. We are in the process of updating our website with our own school’s admissions policy. This will be available soon. Until then, and beyond you are still free to access the link below for admissions advice from the council.
The Department of Education has recently reinforced the need “to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.”The Government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy, and these values have been reiterated by the Prime Minister this year.
At the St. John Chrysostom Federation, we are proud of our safe, stimulating, and inclusive learning environment, where every member of our community is valued and respected. Our broad, balanced and creative curriculum provides opportunities for everyone to succeed. We celebrate our achievements, gifts, and cultural diversity, irrespective of individual differences within the protected categories of the Equality Act of 2010. This policy describes the way we meet the needs of children who experience barriers to learning. We recognize that many pupils, at some time in their school life, may experience difficulties that affect their learning. We aim to identify these needs as they arise, and seek to respond by providing teaching and learning opportunities, that enable every child to achieve their potential.
The life of our heart affects the whole of our life. What’s in our hearts will always be played out. What we put into our hearts will affect what we put our hearts into. Our lives will be greater or worse, more courageous or more fearful by what’s in our hearts. Therefore, learning about how to lead our heart, when to lead from our heart, how to process pain, how to hope, and how to love others is essential in learning about how to live. This is what HEART SMART is. It’s a powerful toolkit that helps us to live with emotional intelligence and self-mastery.
We start by because we are unique, that we’re one in a million, and above all that we’re loved. It’s where we start in HEART SMART because it’s where we start in life. We all begin our days with the need to know that we are loved and safe4. This is the foundational truth to HEART SMART, if we don’t love ourselves it’s hard, some may say impossible, to move on showing love to others. Don’t Forget To Let Love In helps us value ourselves by understanding that we are valued. We discover that we’re not trash, we’re a treasure, we’re not pointless we have purpose and because of love we always get a second chance.
At St Chrysostom’s democracy is taken very seriously. Children are actively encouraged to have a voice and share their views and opinions regularly. Our active school council is one such example. We hold an election in the Autumn term where the children in Year 2-6 vote for two class representatives. The school council meets regularly to discuss ideas and issues important to the children and the school.
Every child also contributes their ideas to the composition of their class charter every year. This sets ground rules for classroom conduct and establishes the standards of behavior children can expect from each other over the year ahead. All children also complete an annual questionnaire which provides them with the opportunity to share their views on learning at St Chrysostom’s and suggest ways in which the school could be improved further.
The importance of laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout the school day, as well as when dealing with behavior and through school assemblies. Children are taught the value and reasons behind laws, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves, and the consequences when laws are broken. Our school's rules, rewards, and sanctions, which are displayed in all classrooms, are referred to regularly and consistently upheld.
Within school, children are actively encouraged to make decisions and choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school, we educate and provide boundaries for children to take risks and make choices safely. Children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and advised how to exercise these safely, for example through our E-Safety and PSHE lessons. Whether it be through choice of learning challenge, how they record their learning, participation in one of our extra-curricular clubs, children are given the freedom to make choices and make decisions.
