Vision, Values and Aims

Eton Porny is a Voluntary Controlled Church of England First School in the heart of Eton Town. Our children come from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds, which we believe enriches our school community. In sympathy with ‘Valuing all God’s Children’ and ‘The Church of England’s Vision for Education’ we welcome all children, including those with different faiths and beliefs, and pride ourselves on being an inclusive school. We value each individual child, their uniqueness and the contribution that they make to our school as well as the wider community.

We have built a safe, caring, enjoyable and challenging learning environment for all of our children. The children are relishing being challenged in their learning, and this has added to the positive, learning atmosphere in the school.

Through our Pedagogy and Curriculum Policies, we make time to support each individual child, and their learning needs. We are able to support children, and parents, through our ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant), with the Home School Link Worker (HSLW) and through circle time, P.S.H.E sessions. Pupils are also encouraged to share and talk through their worries, concerns or achievements with their teacher or another member of the staff they feel able to talk to.

In our last SIAMS inspection, the inspector reported that:

“ The teamwork and shared sense of purpose amongst all members of the school community help to promote a strong sense of belonging to a Christian family “

“The support of the local church community has a positive impact on the effectiveness of collective worship and onthe personal and spiritual development of pupils”.

At Eton Porny we have three aims:

• To create a fun, positive, caring and respectful environment, promoting the joy of learning.
• To develop our pupils to the best of their ability, each with strong self-belief and all exceeding their potential.
• To develop our pupils’ confidence in themselves, promoting resilience in the face of challenge.

These aims are supported through our Christian School Values that were developed in consultation with Parents, Staff, Governors, and Children. The School Christian Values are strongly embedded at Eton Porny and these values are the focus of our weekly worship during whole school Collective Worship, taken by teachers, Chaplains from Eton College and Reverends from the Parish Church St John The Evangelist in Eton.

The links between the schools Christian Values, our Behaviour for Learning Expectations and British Values can be seen below.

The Department for Education state that there is a need "to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs."

The government has set out its definition of British values in the ‘Prevent Strategy’ and emphasises that schools are required to ensure these values are taught across the United Kingdom.

At Eton Porny C of E First School, we have always recognised the importance of educating our children so that they understand the multi-cultural and multi-faith Britain we live in today.  At Eton Porny C of E First School, we reinforce these values regularly and in the following ways:

DEMOCRACY:
Through our Behaviour for Learning Expectations (which the children helped to decide through a questionnaire), our collective worship programme and PSHE and Circle Time, pupils are taught to discuss in groups and listen carefully with concern for each other, respecting the right for every person to have their opinions and voices heard. Pupils also have the opportunity to share their opinions and ideas through our School Council, House Captains and Vice House Captains, Play leaders and Eco Squad. Children are able to put themselves forward for these roles by completing an application, preparing a short speech or presentation to the school, and or their class. Applicants for House and Vice House Captains are then democratically voted for. Pupil questionnaires are another way of ensuring the pupils have a voice at our school. Our behaviour for learning policy involves both rewards and sanctions; pupils are clear about the expectations.

THE RULE OF LAW:
The importance of laws, whether they are those that govern the class, the school or the country, is consistently reinforced through our curriculum, behaviour system and during collective worship. Each class discuss the behaviour for learning expectations to ensure they are clearly understood by all. This ensures that every pupil is able to learn in a safe environment. We expect pupils to behave impeccably when they are on visits outside of school, and feedback often suggests that this is the case. Pupils are taught, through our behaviour system, what happens if they break the rules and that the wrong choices have consequences. Visits from authorities such as the Police and Fire Service form part of our curriculum and help reinforce that laws of the land are in place to protect us.

INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY:
Within school, pupils are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school we provide boundaries for our pupils to make choices safely, through the provision of a safe environment and an inclusive education. Our pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are advised how to exercise these safely; examples of this can be clearly seen in our teaching of e-safety and collective worship lessons. Whether it is through the curriculum, learning challenges or through participation in extra-curricular activities, our pupils are given the freedom to make choices. Pupils are also given the opportunity to be engaged in their learning through the use of personal negotiated targets and self-assessment of their work.

MUTUAL RESPECT:
Respect is evident at our school and can be seen in lessons in every classroom and around the school. Pupils are taught our School Christian Values through collective worship, religious education, and our behaviour for learning expectations. Additional support is provided for individual pupils, through our caring and nurturing ethos and our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA). The support helps to develop self-esteem and to give pupils strategies to help improve their respect of themselves and others. The value of Respect along with those written above underpins our work every day both in and out of the classroom.

TOLERANCE OF THOSE WITH DIFFERENT FAITHS AND BELIEFS:
Our School Christian Values ensure a strong culture of tolerance of those who have different faiths and beliefs. Eton Porny C of E First School enhances pupils understanding of different faiths and beliefs through collective worship, a broad approach to religious education through questioning, P.S.H.E. work and visits to places of worship. Through the curriculum, pupils participate in celebrations such as Diwali, Eid, Chinese New Year, Easter and Hannukah. Through our religious education curriculum, we organise inter faith visits to places of worship. Our pupils with Special Educational Needs also participate in inclusive events within our local community. We have whole school daily acts of worship where we share ideas, events, music and stories to promote the values. Weekly celebration assembly acknowledges the achievements of pupils through: pupil of the week, achievement awards and lunchtime awards.  We also encourage children to share their achievements and awards outside of school termly.

Our Religious Education curriculum is based around the SACRE syllabus using, Discovery RE and Understanding Christianity, enabling children to:

Learn about religion through;

• acquiring and developing knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other principal religions represented in Great Britain
• developing an understanding of the influence of beliefs, values and traditions on individuals, communities, societies and cultures.

Learn from religion by:

• developing a positive attitude towards other people, respecting their right to hold beliefs different from their own and towards living in a society of diverse religions
• developing the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues with reference to the teachings of the principal religions represented in Great Britain
• enhancing their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development by:
  • developing awareness of the fundamental questions of life raised by human experiences, and how religious teachings can relate to them
  • responding to such questions with reference to the teachings and practices of religions and to their understanding and experience
  • reflecting on their own beliefs, values and experiences in the light of their study.

The importance of Religious Education in school:

• RE provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
• RE develops pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other principal religions, other religious traditions and other world views that offer answers to questions such as these.
• RE enhances pupils’ awareness and understanding of religions and beliefs, teachings, practices and forms of expression, as well as of the influence of religion on individuals, families, communities and cultures.
• RE offers opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development.
• RE encourages pupils to learn from different religions, beliefs, values and traditions while exploring their own beliefs and questions of meaning.
• RE challenges pupils to reflect on, consider, analyse, interpret and evaluate issues of truth, belief, faith and ethics and to communicate their responses.
• RE encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging.
• RE enables pupils to flourish individually within their communities and as citizens in a pluralistic society and global community.
• RE has an important role in preparing pupils for adult life, employment and lifelong learning.
• RE enables pupils to develop respect for and sensitivity to others, in particular those whose faiths and beliefs are different from their own.
• RE promotes discernment and enables pupils to combat prejudice.

For more information on our RE curriculum click here

To view our latest SIAMS report from April 2019 please click here