Community and living well together

How we live this out in our school – a celebration of excellence 

At St John’s CE Primary School our community is called to outlive our theological foundation which is grounded in John 13.34, ‘So now I am giving you a new commandment, love each other.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’ 

We believe that actions speak louder than words and regularly spend time as a whole school during collective worship, finding out about how Jesus showed us how to put our values into action.  This helps and inspires us to know how we can do the same. 

We have a close relationship with St John’s Church. The Vicar and the Children and Families worker are familiar faces for all of our families and are part of our school community. 

We work closely with families in a positive and supportive way to ensure that all children can flourish, thrive and succeed. 

How we achieved this 

There is a caring and generous whole school culture which is rooted in our Christian vision and values. In living these out we believe that it is vital to ensure that developing and nurturing positive home school partnerships is at the heart of what we do as a school.  We are highly proactive in working with families to offer support and helping them to make connections with our family partnership link worker and seek early help e.g. accessing parenting courses, advice about housing, and other local community resources, such as, ‘The Nest’, a not for profit community shop,  St John’s Church and CAP (Christians Against Poverty). 

We host monthly drop in advice sessions run by The Chesil Family Partnership Zone and our Family Liaison Worker works closely with the school’s CFPZ link worker. We run a well-attended breakfast club where children are warmly welcomed, fed, nurtured and given a positive start to the school day.  This is offered for free to ensure that identified children attend school regularly and on time. 

Our partnership with St John’s Church is strong and working proactively with the church’s Children and Families worker, we are currently preparing to launch the TLG (Transforming Lives For Good) Early Intervention Programme to offer a group of identified children weekly, nurturing coaching sessions.  Many children also recently participated in an Easter Holiday Club that was organised and run by St John’s Church. 

The difference that it makes 

• A strong sense of whole school community and living well together 

• A positive impact on pupil wellbeing/resilience 

• Enabling children and families to flourish and overcome challenges and obstacles 

• Enhancing positive learning behaviours, equipping children to be able to learn and remember more.  

• Families and their children feel cared for, listened to and are served by goodness