In January 2023 we welcomed a new Headteacher to our school. With a new leader in place we reflected on our strengths and areas for improvement. This led us to revisit our purpose vision and values.

April 2023: We surveyed staff and Governors

• Name the 3 things that Crowmarsh does best: 
• If Crowmarsh school was a person, name their top 3 characteristics: 
• What makes Crowmarsh special, unique and different from any other school? 
• What is Crowmarsh Schools purpose?
• How does Crowmarsh school achieve its purpose?
• What does our current vision it mean to you?
• What do our current values mean to you?
• Based on all your answers. What should our Crowmarsh vision be?

April 2023: Staff & Governor INSET

As a church school with close links to the Diocese we worked with their team as external facilitators, to discuss with staff the results and opinions gathered form the initial survey. Staff were open, honest and frank about what they felt. Voices and opinions were, heard and respected.

May 2023: Ongoing discussion

Throughout May the findings from the survey and from the INSET were displayed in the staffroom and staff and Governors were able to add and comment on the development of our vision. The Senior Team & Governors provided multiple revised options for the new vision and values in an attempt to encompass all the comments and suggestions gathered

May 203: Children Consulted

With some degree of direction the children were consulted and their contributions were heard and incorporated into a further draft. They particularly wanted to include values such as ‘Forgiveness’, ‘Kindness/Caring , ‘Brave’, ‘Keep Trying’, ‘Encourage’, ‘Be yourself’.

May 2023: Draft Vision

The final draft was established and as a church school the Diocese was consulted. They offered further advice to finalise links to the bible, stories & songs. To ensure inclusion the school settled on Bible stories that are common place and universal in their messages.

This was the hardest part, incorporating everyone’s thoughts into a short eye catching summary.

June 2023: Final Draft

A graphic designer volunteered to provide the graphic for the final draft.

June 2023: Parents Consulted

A final draft was ready to share with parents. Parents have been overwhelmingly positive in their response and only raised two points for discussion.

Concern over biblical references.: As a church school we must reference the Bible in our vision & ethos. We have been mindful in our choice of references, choosing stories with moral values shared by many religions and even amongst those with no religion.

There are more values in school and life than Care, Grow, Persevere & Shine: Indeed there are and these will not be lost in our discussions with children. The school vision is a summary of who we are and what makes us unique. It would be impossible and too long to include all the things we, promote, teach and celebrate.