Theologically Rooted Statement

Hawkesley Church Primary is part of BDMAT, a Christian Multi-Academy Trust sponsored by the Church of England, Birmingham. Our school is also affiliated to the Methodist Association. Our Chair of Governors is Reverend Larry Wright from Kings Norton Parish. He works closely with our school to support all aspects of school life and our strong Christian ethos.

As a Church school, the Bible demonstrates to us the impact of living the values embodied by Jesus. We are inspired by the scripture verse ‘let your light shine’ (Matthew 5:16) which we feel encapsulates our Christian vision and inspires our selection of values. There are a large number of school values (18) but these can all be grouped within our LIGHT acronym. 

 Love

Integrity

Greatness

Honesty

Trust

 Other aspects of scripture that we draw upon for inspiration for our values include:

Matthew 22 : 36-39: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment and the second commandment resonates with it: "Love your neighbour as yourself". This exemplifies Love :  We teach the children how to show love to themselves, others, our school and the wider environment and encourage everyone to show love in all that we do. As a staff body, we model love with one another.  Being a learning community is one of our school tenets and love strengthens our school community.

 1 Peter 3:16: "Keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." This reminds us of the importance of Integrity: We talk to teach the children that integrity is about ‘doing the right thing even when no one is watching.’ Our staff approach all that we do with integrity.

Psalm 71 : 21 "May You increase my greatness and turn to comfort me." This links to Greatness:  :  Just as the Psalmist asked God to increase his greatness, we encourage our children to recognise and show their Greatness. Staff model this to the children and exemplify it through referring to individuals in society (past and present) who have shown greatness. We encourage children and staff not to compare their best to the best of others but to be proud of their own personal achievements. Greatness is also seen in our biblical role models who we take inspiration from. These biblical role models represent each of our four school tenets:

David is our biblical role model for Greatness, as through his faith, he was able to show greatness and defeat Goliath. Our school tie reminds us of our Greatness.

Noah is our biblical role model for Learning Community, as he was able to bring people/animals together for a common purpose when he built the ark. Our school badge reminds us that we are a Learning Community.

Esther is our biblical role model for 'Same, but different', as she was an advocate for the Jews and fought against their persecution. Our school shoes remind us of our ‘Same, but different’ tenet.

Ruth is our biblical role model for our work on the 'Golden Rule' (Treat others as you wish to be treated; Luke 6:31), as she looked after Naomi when her sons and husband died due to the famine. The golden thread on our school jumpers reminds us of the ‘Golden Rule.’

 2 Corinthians 8:21: "For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man." This reminds us of the importance of Honesty: We encourage the children and staff to speak truthfully, with sensitivity to others, and to be true to their words.

Proverbs 3: 5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." This relates to how we see Trust:  We define trust as having faith in God (for those that believe in God), ourselves and others. Sometimes, we may not understand why things are happening, but trusting in the Lord and those that love us helps to get us through difficult times.

At Hawkesley, our values are for living and they allow us to realise our vision of enabling everyone in our school community to let their light shine. Our values apply equally to our staff as well as our children and we aim to model these within our wider community.