Christian Distinctiveness

The Church of England’s vision for education (2016) is deeply Christian, with Jesus’ promise of ‘life in all its fullness’ at its heart. In line with the Church of England’s role as the established Church, their vision is for the common good of the whole community.

• Educating for wisdom, knowledge and skills: enabling discipline, confidence and delight in seeking wisdom and knowledge, and developing talents in all areas of life.
• Educating for hope and aspiration: enabling healing, repair and renewal, coping wisely when things go wrong, opening horizons and guiding people into ways of fulfilling them.
• Educating for community and living well together: a core focus on relationships, participation in communities and the qualities of character that enable people to flourish together.
• Educating for dignity and respect: the basic principle of respect for the value and preciousness of each person, treating each person as a unique individual of inherent worth.

As a Church of England Voluntary Aided School, we offer an education that is distinctively Christian. Although each church school are unique, all church schools will share core values based on the Gospel values. Church schools are places where loving God and loving our neighbours, is lived out in the daily life of the school. At St Matthew's we aim to serve our community by providing an education of the highest quality within the context of Christian belief and practice. We encourage an understanding of the meaning and significance of faith and promote our Christian values through the experiences we offer to all of our pupils.

Our School is founded upon core values of friendship, kindness, love, respect, trust, forgiveness and humility and time is spent exploring what is distinctively Christian about these particular values. Many other values are explicitly taught throughout the school day such as courage, gratitude and compassion. We strive for excellent relationships making our school a happy place to work and learn.