St Oswald’s CE Primary School is a church school and we work closely with the Dioscese and St Oswald’s church to embed values that are inclusive and valuable for all.

Church schools have core Christian beliefs and values at their heart. However, as a a church school, St Oswald’s is inclusive of all. Respect towards others, appreciation of different beliefs and the encouragement of children’s own voices are central to what we do. Our theologically rooted vision and scripture is at the core of all we do at St Oswald’s:

‘Learning for all, caring for each other, preparing for the future’

‘Let us encourage one another – Hebrews 10.25‘

Church schools recognise that, as well as academic and emotional intelligence, human beings also have spiritual intelligence. The spiritual aspects of life will be recognised, and nurtured alongside the academic and emotional needs of all. Spirituality is the fabric of our school and further information about spiritual development can be found here. Church schools are places where reflection is supported and challenge through questioning is encouraged, as through this we can make sense of the world, the community we live in and the purpose of our own personal lives.

Our Church School Values and Vision

Our school aims are summarised in our school vision:

Learning for all, caring for each other, preparing for the future, Let us encourage one another – Hebrews 10.25

Find out more information about our school vision here.

At St Oswald’s our six core values are:

Respect	Compassion	Friendship	Service	Trust	Justice

Our values reflect our Christian foundation as a Church of England School and provide the basis for everything we do and aim to achieve at St Oswald’s. Most importantly, they are at the heart of all the relationships that exist between the members of our school community – children, parents, staff, governors and our local community.

At St Oswald’s, Christian values are central to the ethos of our school. We have identified six core values that help us to live out our vision and should influence all relationships and actions and permeate our curriculum. Each half term, we celebrate and raise awareness of a different value. During one of our Collective Worships, we celebrate those individuals who have shown this value throughout the week. We celebrate this by adding our names to leaves that are put on the school’s ‘Caring Tree’. As the year progresses, the tree flourishes with colour and names reflecting how often values are shown throughout our school.

Find out more about our school values, explanations of each value and how they link to Bible stories here.

The Church School Community

Part of being a church school is developing a sense of community and this is something that we pride ourselves on at St Oswald’s. Every individual’s views and beliefs are respected and celebrated. Throughout our day, we have moments where we come together as a class, phase and whole school to share, discuss and celebrate together.

As you join our community, you will have a symbolic reference to becoming part of our team. At St. Oswald’s, we are a family and each of us are represented by a pebbles in a bowl located in the school’s main entrance. Together we are a compass to guide one another, the comfort when we occasionally falter and the inspiration to be our best. As a new member of the school starts their time at St. Oswald’s, they will add a pebble to the bowl. As they leave, they will take a pebble to always remember they are part of our school family and take a part of St Oswald’s with them.

SIAMs Feedback

Here are some quotes from our most recent SIAMS Report, after the school was inspected and graded ‘Outstanding’ in June 2017:

 “Personal and academic achievement sit side by side at St Oswald’s” 

“St Oswald’s vision and values are woven throughout the whole curriculum.”

“Pupils’ behaviour is exemplary with sincere and respectful relationships the norm.”

“St Oswald’s is a school which ‘welcomes everybody

Links with St Oswald’s Church

We have a special relationship with St Oswald’s church and we work closely with Reverend Sue Sheriff. Rev Sue comes into school regularly to deliver collective worship and to support our pupils in lots of different ways.

In addition to the church visiting us, we also make regular visits to the church. We use the church for services and collective worships which are led by the children. During our study of Christianity during Religious Education lessons, we often make visits to the church to appreciate the place of worship in our local area.

As we work closely with the church, we often feature regularly in the church’s magazine where we update the local community on the happenings in our school. Examples of our contributions can be found below:

Some of our Year 6 pupils also help out at the St Oswald’s Tots sessions. This helps Rev Sue and the toddlers who attend, but also gives our pupils the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, helping them to prepare for the future.

Collective Worship

As a church school, the children have a daily act of collective worship. This is a mixture of whole school, phase and class worship. Wherever the worship occurs, children are welcomed, given the opportunity to engage in the topic and then respond, and they usually leave the worship with something to think about. An important part of our collective worship is also the opportunity for children to have the time to reflect and contemplate.

Worship is led by staff in school, the children in our School Worship Team, Rev Sue Sheriff, YoYo (York Schools and Youth Trust) and occasionally other visitors. 

Find out more about collective worship here.