Vision and Ethos

The school provides a unique educational experience for children in Watford through its Christian ethos, its understanding of the needs of the community and the pupils. It is totally committed to high quality education and the improvement of life chances for all.

St John’s is at the heart of a richly diverse community. The education and services we provide serve the whole community, valuing and making the most of its dynamic blend of ethnicities, languages, cultures and religions.

We welcome children from Christian families, from other faith and from no faith backgrounds. The ethos of St John’s is based on core Christian values. These underpin all elements of school life, and enable every child to develop as a moral, social, spiritual and cultural human being. Every child, whatever their background, will be valued as a unique child of God, and will be enabled to grow in confidence and self-belief with the opportunity to reach for the skies.

Loving Your Neighbour, Respecting Everyone and Valuing Diversity is at the root of our ‘Growing Together in Love and Respect’. Through this our pupils will learn about the importance of community and serving others so that they can become citizens that make positive contributions to society.

The Christian ethos encompasses the whole of our school community and is reflected in our four key Values:

Educational excellence

The school will provide a creative and challenging curriculum, which enables children to aim high with a clear emphasis on spoken English, reading, writing, numeracy and computing.

The school is committed to:

• Being fully inclusive and meeting the needs of all children
• Delivering the EYFS and the National Curriculum in creative, exciting and challenging ways
• Ensuring high standards of achievement that exceed national standards
• Giving high priority to spoken English, reading, writing, maths and computing
• Challenging all children to achieve their full potential and preparing them to move to the next stage of their education with confidence.

Development of the whole child

The school is committed to all aspects of a child’s development, supporting them to become responsible and moral members of the community, to make healthy lifestyle choices and to flourish as creative and inquisitive life-long learners. Through education inside and outside the classroom, the school will raise awareness of core British values and prepare children for life in modern Britain.

The school will enable children to:

• Develop as creative, inquisitive and independent learners
• Understand right and wrong and achieve exemplary standards of behaviour
• Make healthy lifestyle choices
• Have opportunities for reflection and spiritual growth.

Christian ethos

The Christian ethos of loving your neighbour, respecting each other, and valuing diversity will be integral to our school life. The ethos of the school will:

• Be rooted in Christian values
• Enable all children to explore the Christian faith, experiencing collective worship and prayer
• Enable children to have an understanding of people of faith.

Community

The school will be at the heart of our community, serving those that need us and instilling values of service and community in its children. It is our aim that the school will work to:

• Have strong links with the Parish Church and wider community
• Encourage children, staff, parents and carers, Church and local community to work together as a team
• Develop social responsibility through serving others in the local community
• Build a strong partnership with parents to support the education of their children and the life of the school
• Provide support for families through local services, social events, adult education courses and parenting advice.