'Let your Light Shine'

Our vision for our community is for everyone, children, and adults, to flourish and shine brightly as the best and fullest version of their unique selves. We aim high and do not let circumstances limit us. ‘I will shine. We will shine as, together, we grow in wisdom, learning from the teachings of Jesus, to serve our community.’ 

In the Old Testament, we see that God created all human beings in his image as unique, loved individuals. It was God’s plan for all of creation, including human beings, to flourish. God’s desire is for us all to be amazing – loved, valued, represented, celebrated, and fulfilled.

Genesis 1:27: "So, God created human beings, making them to be like himself." Psalm 139:13-14: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful."

In our community, we express this through our motto: ‘Let your light shine.’ To us, this means being ambitious and determined, proud of who we are and what we can be, pushing boundaries, trying new things, making a difference, being brave, and continuing to learn. Matthew 5:16 ‘Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.’ It means celebrating diversity and difference, treasuring the uniqueness of everyone. We are committed to the full flourishing of everyone – body, mind, and spirit.

The work of our school is to equip everyone to discover and love their unique self, to express it boldly and confidently through their treasured gifts, and to find their place in making God’s world a better place. We aim to provide a curriculum which respects and validates children’s diverse experiences and broaden their horizons.

Our vision:

At Stretton CE Academy we want our children to be well-informed, reflective, and critical thinkers with the self- confidence to form and pursue their own valuable goals in life. They will be equipped to be ambitious, compassionate members of society who have the courage to challenge injustice and become responsible and empathetic leaders in their chosen fields. Our aim is for all our children to believe that there are no limits to what they can achieve and to equip them with the skills, personal qualities and understanding to nurture their own spiritual growth and to make their dreams a reality.

Our vision is underpinned by six Christian values which are referred to throughout all aspects of school life to enable children to ‘let their light shine’ through their actions and learning.

• Love
• Truth
• Hope
• Fairness
• Perseverance
• Peace and Reconciliation

How does our vision inform our curriculum aims?

The curriculum at Stretton CE Academy has been designed to support and encourage all children to ‘let their light shine’ them in the following ways:

• Children will be empowered to let their light shine by the recognition that they are unique and important:
  • They appreciate the value of their home community;
  • They respect individuality and are open to learning about difference;
  • They are aware of their own potential and the significance of their contribution as independent citizens of the modern world.
• Children will be perceptive and curious observers of the world around them:
  • Children work hard to develop their knowledge and understanding of the world;
  • They notice change and make connections as they learn;
  • Every child is supported to be open to new ideas and interests and to acquire the cultural capital and skills to access them.
• Children learn to be effective communicators:
  • They collect and evaluate information as critical listeners, readers and researchers;
  • They are imaginative and creative in the arts, design, mathematics and science;
  • They express independent ideas using oral, written, visual and digital media.
• Children learn to be confident and resilient:
  • Children learn to respond positively to challenge;
  • They embrace new opportunities with enthusiasm;
  • They use meta-cognitive skills to solve problems;
  • Year 6 children are ready to access secondary education confidently and progress beyond school as life-long learners.
• All children have opportunities to develop leadership qualities:
  • They learn to be reflective, compassionate and responsible;
  • They understand what good leadership looks like and can work with others to identify and resolve problems.
  • They will have opportunities to undertake leadership roles in the form of school council or class-based roles to develop the foundations for future success being ready to shine their light in the wider community.

Principles of curriculum design

Our curriculum is informed by the following key principles:

1. Teaching is informed by an appreciation of learning theory to achieve the best learning outcomes for our children:
   • Learning is efficient if it is delivered in a way that allows children to revisit and embed key knowledge;
   • Knowledge is sequenced so that prior knowledge and skills facilitate subsequent learning (building schema (frameworks) which support later learning).
2. Children are entitled to access a challenging and wide curriculum which validates their own experiences and inspires them to understand the unfamiliar, form ambitious goals and have the confidence to achieve them. We aim to offer real life experiences to deepen their cultural capital and give them practical experiences to secure abstract knowledge.
3. Language, literacy, mathematical and cultural development are fundamental foundations for future learning. An effective primary curriculum ensures that children have access to learning opportunities that support them to become active, informed, and caring citizens in a global economy.
4. To build cultural capital and ensure access to disciplinary domains, the curriculum is developed from a secure appreciation of core subject knowledge to identify:
   • end points that are age-appropriate and ambitious, informed by the national curriculum and by professional subject associations;
   • the core concepts (declarative knowledge) and procedural knowledge on which each discipline is built;
   • opportunities to revisit and apply earlier learning in similar and different contexts to embed understanding and build flexibility so that children gain the confidence to transfer learning to new contexts confidently and efficiently where appropriate.

The sequencing of learning opportunities has been considered carefully to ensure that prior learning supports subsequent learning and that opportunities to reinforce learning occur frequently, e.g. core vocabulary, place, people and institutions may be introduced in one subject context - in effect pre-teaching elements - to support confident access to new learning in another; understanding of History, Geography, Maths and Science may be used appropriately to inform learning artistic and applied subjects, allowing revisiting of cultural capital and reinforcement of its value, as well as opportunities to create higher quality creative work founded on wider understanding of the world.

Children will be offered clear opportunities in all subject areas to access diverse cultural contexts, some of which will be unfamiliar. This approach supports children to recognise their role as global citizens, building understanding and tolerance, and supporting their growth as reflective, informed, and caring adults.

All subject areas support children to read and develop communication skills at a high level. Subject-specific vocabulary is introduced and explained, and then reinforced using systematic opportunities for retrieval practice and via carefully selected texts. Children will have consistent opportunities to listen, research, question, debate, write essays, create posters and arguments, and present their ideas creatively (including using varied technology and media) with growing independence. Children will also have the opportunity to share their learning with families, governors and the wider community.