Vision and Values
Our Vision sets out our ambitions for the lives that we lead here at Buxted – teachers, parents and children.
Our Values are the way we achieve this vision. They are the behaviours we need to try to demonstrate each day to help us be the best that we can be.
Vision
The South Ashdown Schools’ Federation vision is summarised in two simple words so it’s really easy to remember:
Aspire and Inspire
We want everyone in our school to aspire to be the best they can be. But we know we can’t fulfil all of our potential on our own. We need help. And that help comes from the inspiration of God’s love for us, the wonderful world He has created for us and the support of our wider Christian community.
Jesus told his disciples "I have come that they may have life to the full." (John 10:10)
Inspired by God, we aspire to be the best we can be, so that we can live life in all its fullness.
Values
As a Church of England school, our Values are founded on the teachings of the Bible. They are the key to putting our school Vision into action in our own lives.
For our Values to inspire and motivate us, they need to be real and they need to be relevant. So, we recently got everyone involved to think more about what they should be. Our School Council - made up of children from across all the year groups - worked to hold meetings and run surveys and discussion groups with parents, teachers and the rest of the children. It was fantastic to see how passionate everyone was. It was quite hard to narrow down our list of ideas, but finally we got there.
The result was our six Christian Values. We believe they will shape our school culture and inspire us all to be the best we can be every day.
Love
When we think of love we often think about our families, our close friends and maybe even our pets. We would do anything to help them because we care so much for them.
But love is much more than this. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells us to “love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbours like ourselves.”
It’s easy to love the people we like. What about the ones we aren’t so keen on? Jesus tells us that love is also demanding. It’s comforting but it’s challenging. We need to think of others as well as ourselves. Unconditional love as Jesus showed us when he died for us, expects nothing in return. It’s the most important value of all and the other five all flow from it.
Kindness
Kindness is about wanting the best for everyone around us. Being kind is a brilliant way to make friends. Give it a try!
St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians tells us to “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” So, from kindness comes forgiveness. Taking inspiration from God’s forgiveness for our sins we should be encouraged to help the people around us regardless of how they might have acted towards us.
Kindness is also about confidence and sometimes it takes courage. With God’s help we can have the courage to reach out and be a friend to others expecting nothing in return.
Compassion
Compassion is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes - experiencing what they experience. But it’s more than that - it’s using this knowledge to try to help.
Jesus was often a friend of the friendless. He showed compassion to people that everyone else didn’t like very much. We often read in the Bible “Jesus had compassion”. Each time His compassion is followed by an action to make things better. He makes blind people see, he raises a dead man back to life, he feeds over 5000 hungry people.
Of course we can’t do quite such amazing things, but we can show kindness in all sorts of smaller ways. Perhaps a new child has joined your class and they are scared about making friends – could you be the one to realise and to make them feel included and welcome?
Integrity
Integrity is about telling the truth. Sometimes it’s scary to tell the truth, especially if we have done something wrong.
In the book of Proverbs we read that “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out.” God knows our hearts and motivations and he wants us to be open and honest in all we do. That’s quite a challenge because we won’t always get things right.
But that’s alright. If we own up to our mistakes and say sorry, if we are open and honest with each other, we can learn to trust each other more and more. With that trust we feel more confident in each other, knowing we can rely on our friends when we take risks and try new things.
Respect
Everyone is different and that’s what makes life interesting! Respect is about valuing everyone and everything and celebrating our differences. We are all God’s people and we all matter, no matter who we are, where we are from or what we look like.
Examples of ways we show respect include listening attentively, speaking kindly and valuing what everyone has to say. It’s also a nice feeling to be respected – to know that others look up to us and value what we say.
But respect does not just happen. It has to be earned. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us to “treat others as you would want them to treat you.” So the way to gain respect is to give respect to others in the first place.
Perseverance
Sometimes things won’t turn out the way we want them to. It happens to everyone and it can make us sad. It’s what we do next that matters most - perseverance is getting up and having another go. We learn some of the most important things in life when things go wrong and we try again. And the more we do this, the easier it becomes.
In his letter to the Hebrews, St. Paul tells us that life is like a race. He says we should “Run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." So we can look to Jesus to help us when we fail and life feels tough.
It’s not always easy, but with God’s help we can learn from our mistakes and this is the way to lasting success.