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Living and learning in the Family of God
Holy Trinity C. of E. Primary School Northwood ! ‘I am the vine you are the branches. Remain in me and I will remain in you.’
Our school values inspire the daily life and actions of our school community. We hope that when you visit our school you will see this and be inspired by what you see.
School Values 2012 - 13
A guide for parents and visitors to the school.
Living and learning in the Family of God
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Compassion
Our vision... At Holy Trinity School we seek to live and learn In order to grow and flourish our children need: • To know that they are loved and together in the family of God. We want our children, families, staff and our wider accepted and that they are uniquely community to grow, flourish and bear much made in the image of God • To have opportunities for worship and fruit. This is based on Jesus’ teaching in the gospel of John Chapter 15 where he says, “I spiritual development and to develop am the vine; you are the branches. If you good values for life in community. • Excellent teaching of speaking, remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” listening, reading, writing, mathematics and ICT so that they At Holy Trinity school: acquire foundational learning skills • An inspiring and adventurous • We believe that every person is of curriculum experience that creates immeasurable value and is created excitement and compels children to uniquely in the image of God and has want to learn and ask questions. • Clear feedback, praise and gifts and talents to share with their community. encouragement in their learning • We want every person to feel • The use of innovative technology to welcome, safe and a sense of enhance their learning experience belonging to our community. • We believe that every member of our Each class is named after a tree and children community should be inspired, begin their life at Holy Trinity in Acorns nursery challenged and encouraged to grow and grow to become strong Redwoods by the and develop. time they are in Year 6. • We believe that we must learn to love one another and work together being Our vision is realised through our community a source of encouragement to one development plan, which seeks to ensure that another. our school community is continually improving and developing and we grow and learn ! together in the family of God. Each year the children at Holy Trinity choose values that they feel will help the entire school community to grow and flourish. We hope you will find this guide to our values helpful.
‘My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.’
‘Compassion’ and ‘sympathy’ have much in The father in the parable of the Prodigal Son is common and both are stronger in meaning not just forgiving. He is described as being than simply ‘feeling sorry for’ someone. filled with compassion. ‘But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled The words have their roots in the idea of with compassion for him; he ran to his son, ‘suffering with’ someone, putting yourself in threw his arms around him and kissed someone else’s shoes and experiencing what him.’ (Luke 15:20) The father seems to they experience. This leads to a desire to act, understand everything that his son is feeling to do something. It is not patronizing. It is not and responds by giving him everything he about ‘doing good’ from a position of strength needs: a whole-hearted welcome, acceptance or ‘remembering those less fortunate than and love. ourselves’. Compassion requires an act of imagination and humility to share in the lives of Christians have always had to wrestle with the others. Notice the qualities that Paul links problem of how a loving God could allow there together. He says ‘clothe yourselves with to be evil and suffering in the world. There is no compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness simple answer to this but we make the first and patience.’ (Colossians 3:12) step towards understanding when we grasp the idea that God the Father is not passively Jesus showed compassion towards the observing the suffering of the world from the ‘harassed and helpless’ crowds (Matthew 9.36) outside. God fully identified with human and his works of healing were always suffering in the life and death of Jesus and prompted by compassion for people’s continues to work to transform the sufferings of suffering. He wept at the death of Lazarus and the world through the work of the Holy Spirit. was moved to act.
Living and learning in the Family of God
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Reverence
Justice When thinking about ‘justice’, some people think first about giving wrongdoers the punishment they deserve. ‘Justice’ evokes ideas of ‘just deserts’, ’the punishment fitting the crime’, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’. However, that would be a one-sided picture of justice. Justice also means giving all people particularly the poor and oppressed - what it is right and fair for them to have: life, health, freedom and dignity. It is about acting out of a concern for what is right and seeing right prevail. It is about social justice, especially for those who suffer most and are least able to protect themselves.
Throughout the Bible, it is emphasised that justice is immensely important to God. It is fundamental to God’s character. ‘For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.’ (Psalm 11:7) Justice is not about a culture which encourages everyone to insist on their own rights at the expense of others. It is about a community that knows that everyone’s wellbeing is bound up with that of everyone else. A commitment to justice leads to fierce opposition to injustice in whatever form it may be found. Justice is a pre-requisite of peace: without justice there can be no peace.
In Exodus, the people are instructed to deal We are proud to be a rights respecting school with everyone fairly and never to show partiality where we seek to ensure that all children to one group above another (Exodus 23:2,6). throughout the world know about and enjoy their rights. The Bible emphasises that ‘The righteous care about justice for the poor’ (Proverbs 29:7). Isaiah says: ‘Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow’ (Isaiah 1:17). Justice is the ‘plumb line’ by which society is measured (Isaiah 29:17). According to Amos, its presence in society should be constant and abundant: ‘Let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!’ (Amos 5:24)
We are helping to make the world a more just place by supporting Watford New Hope Trust and Starfish Malawi.
As Moses approached the presence of God in the burning bush, God said to him: ‘Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’ This scene captures something of the essence of ‘reverence.’ Reverence is the proper human response to what is holy and sacred. It is related to awe and respect. It is this profound respect that is expressed in the Biblical phrase ‘the fear of the Lord’. This is not fear in the sense of terror or a b j e c t g ro v e l l i n g b u t a re v e re n t a c knowledgment of God’s greatness and our complete dependence. Such reverence is the proper response to the mystery of life and death, or to the created world in which we live. This profound respect for God is the spring from which true worship flows. Although only God is truly worthy of reverence and worship, the Bible also contains the related concept of ‘honouring’. We are asked to honour one another and one of the ten commandments instructs us to honour our father and mother.
Inspiration At Holy Trinity we seek to be an inspiration to one another as we support and encourage and build each other up. Inspired by the London 2012 Olympic legacy the children wanted to reflect on those who inspire them and how they in turn can be an inspiration to everyone they meet. Inspired by our faith, our entire school community seeks to inspire a generation with a love of learning and a sense of awe and wonder at the world in which we live.
Living and learning in the Family of God
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Wisdom There is a type of literature in the Bible that is sometimes called ‘Wisdom Literature’ and an important idea in these writings is that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom’. Wisdom is insight into the way life works: a proper understanding of the consequences of our thoughts, words and actions and an awareness of the true value of things. It is rooted in proper reverence for God who is the source of all life and all values.
Community he thinks that you can gain happiness by doing what you want and be gaining more and more possessions. The wise person recognizes their own limitations, trusts in God and understands that there is more to like than may be seen on the surface.
The Bible often points out that God’s wisdom is the reversal of ‘the wisdom of the world’. Christ’s sacrificial life and his teaching about love and humility may appear foolish by the Although related to education and knowledge, world’s standards but, in reality, it expresses wisdom differs from cleverness. Wisdom may the Wisdom of God. be best described as discernment gained through life experience and distilled into guiding principles. Sometimes, the word is used in the Bible to refer to the practical and technical skills possessed by an experienced craftsperson or administrator. In the book of Proverbs, Wisdom is sometimes personified and, at one point, is spoken of as she who worked alongside God as a master craftsperson when God created the world. The opposite of wisdom is foolishness, which is a wrong understanding of life. Jesus tells the parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21). Although this parable may seem to be mainly about greed and obsession with money, at a deeper level it is about putting our trust or faith in the wrong things. It’s about missing the point; it’s about being a fool. The fool does not realize that his soul is ‘on loan’ from God, who can require it back whenever he likes. The fool thinks that the aim of life is to ‘be happy’ and
‘Our school values and our classroom charters of rights and responsibilities are helping us to make wise choices.’
A central element of being a family is interdependence: all are needed and valued and each person is important to the whole. The same message is found in Paul’s image of the Christian community as the body of Christ. Each member of the body shares the joys and sufferings of the others and each depends upon everyone else. The foundation of Christian community is Christ’s self giving on the cross, the supreme demonstration of his love for all. We love because he loved us first. For the first Christians, this was expressed in a genuine common life with shared meals, shared possessions and practical support for the poor. The Christian church today continues to serve not only those within the Christian community but any who are in need. Jesus tells stories of the heavenly banquet to which all are invited. The barriers between people are broken down in a loving community around God and Jesus had stern words to say to those who refused to recognise that all are included in this community of friendship. We are proud to be part of our school community and to have the full support of Holy Trinity Church and the local community.