"Growing into all God wants us to be"

Everyone in our school community is on an accompanied journey of growth and discovery. God lights the path ahead of us and helps us with every step. “This encourages us to be part of better things and know that God is supporting us every step of the way”. Amelie Y5

Psalm 119:105 underpins our vision: Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

LOVE is our key value. It lies at the root of all the other values. It is showing care and friendship to all regardless of race, religion or nationality. As Jesus said, "Do to others as you would have them do to you.” The obvious text is 1 Corinthians 13, you could also use the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37. The golden rule quoted above you will find in Luke 6:31.

RESPECT is following God’s will by thinking of how others feel and treating them as we would want to be treated ourselves. This value as expanded by the comments is very close to LOVE. The Zacchaeus incident shows Jesus ignoring people’s prejudices and a transformed man being generous; Luke 19:1-10. Paul also ignores barriers; Galatians 3:26-29. The lovely story of Ruth touches this theme often, see especially the first chapter.

HONESTY is being open of heart and truthful in our relationship with God and others. There is a good contrast in the account of Jesus’ anointing in Luke 7:36-50. Psalm 1 explores this theme as does Paul in Galatians 5:22-26. Surprisingly the word “Honesty” only appears three times in the Bible (the same number as the use of the word “lifeboat”!).

FORGIVENESS is being willing to lay your hurt aside and make a new start, just as God is willing to forgive us. This gets a mention in the Lord’s Prayer. See also the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21-35 and the whole story of Joseph in genesis 37-50, especially 45:1-15 and 50:15-21.

PERSEVERANCE is keeping going whatever the challenge in order to make the most of the gifts God gave us and to always do our best. Daniel exemplifies this well: chapters 3 and 6. There are two short parables in Matthew 13:44-46 and some stirring words in Joshua 1.

STEWARDSHIP is looking after God’s world and all that he has provided for us, taking care of our school environment and being thankful for all we have. The obvious passage is Genesis 1 but sadly it’s a passage that has such strong cultural overtones about its interpretation that it can be hard to hear the beauty of creation. A parable about getting it wrong can be found in Luke 12:16-21 and a more politically challenging passage can be found in 1 Timothy 6:6-10.