Virtues, Ethos & Faith

That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither - whatever they do prospers.
Psalm 1:3

St Christopher’s is a Church of England Academy where pupils and staff work together, in the knowledge and love of God. We try to act out our faith in daily life, with Christ as our example. Within our strong Christian, Anglican context, we seek to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, intellectual and physical development of our pupils, growing together as a caring and supportive community whilst preparing them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of their adult lives.

St Christopher’s CE High School has provided high quality education for the Church going families of East Lancashire for over sixty years. We are proud of the enviable reputation that we have earned in all areas of education – cultural, social, physical and of course spiritual. Our faith in the love of God informs all that we do. St Christopher’s is first and foremost a Church school.

The wide range of activities ensures that each pupil can grow and develop wherever their interests may lie. The many educational trips,expeditions and tours, our popular Duke of Edinburgh programme, highly regarded music department, and nationally recognised ecogroup, all give further evidence of what really is a complete curriculum. We encourage all our pupils to take full advantage of all that is on offer. Visitors to St Christopher’s often comment on the sense of community which is such a distinctive feature of the school. We work hard to ensure that every child is known, supported and challenged.

We aim to achieve our mission by providing a learning environment which;

• Is ordered and disciplined.

• Develops the pupils' knowledge of and commitment to the Christian faith and fosters a sympathetic approach to other religions and cultures.

• Recognises that each member of the school community is an individual with specific needs and strengths.

• Fosters mutual respect and concern for others. Values the contribution made by each member of the school community.

• Encourages and celebrates positive achievement.

• Offers pupils equal access to all areas of the curriculum.

• Gives pupils the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to gain the best possible qualifications.

• Encourages the development of personal and inter-personal skills.

• Promotes self-confidence, self-discipline, a sense of responsibility and a generosity of spirit.

Key Virtues

Our Christian understanding of human prosperity is not limited by our three key themes. Prospering is also evident when an individual exhibits virtuous elements of good character. This idea goes beyond mere values – those things which we consider to be important and which we treasure – to include our own character, the shaping of which is sculptured through schooling as pupils deposit small and regular amounts into the bank of key virtues.

Forgiveness

Promoting forgiveness allows us to nurture pupils by promoting a Christ-like forgiveness at every opportunity. Using Jesus as our example, and particularly his teaching in the Lord’s Prayer, our pastoral staff and wellbeing team teach his principles to restore broken relationships, ensuring that following the reconciliation of pupils, ‘whatever they do prospers.’

Friendship

We promote healthy friendships by doing all that we can to ensure that our pupils do not ‘walk in step with the wicked’. This process is particularly evident during the process of transition from primary school when we pay particular attention to the composition of form groups and make good use of a formalised mentoring programme.

Hope

In our uncertain world we rejoice in the sure and certain Biblical Hope for the future. Bad experiences and behaviour, wrongdoing and evil need not have the last word.

Justice

Pupils can be confident that their actions will be treated justly. Justice is not seen in isolation from the complementary core virtue of Forgiveness as we recognise in reflecting the nature of God and what Christ achieved on the cross, we need both in our school community.

Love

Love underpins all that we do. Our mission statement is headed by Jesus’ appeal to ‘Love God, and love each other.’ Love should be a primary fruit yielded by our tree-like pupils who are planted by those streams of living water that flow from the law of the Lord. After all, ‘God is love’ (John 1:8) and the more we love, the more we know God and reveal Him in or lives.

Peace

Our sincere hope is that our pupils will experience a life of internal and spiritual prosperity and know something of the holistic Biblical peace known by the Hebrew word: ‘Shalom’.

Trust

Proverbs 3:5 implores us to ‘Trust in the Lord with all (our) hearts, and lean not on (our) own understanding.’ Again, we recognise that the need to offer our pupils the opportunity to trust God and to ‘meditate’ and ‘delight’ in the Law, the Word of the Lord!

Parents who send their children to our school, formed as it is around this clear sense of purpose, will not be disappointed. They can take comfort in the knowledge that their chid is offered an encounter with Jesus Christ and with the Christian faith and with an education that embraces excellence and academic rigour within the wider framework of spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional, moral and social development, all of which combined will allow their precious and unique child to prosper in all that they do.