As a Church school, our ethos is underpinned by Christian values. Our four core values of love, community, integrity and perseverance are rooted in the life story of St. Peter. Through overcoming the challenges he faced on his spiritual and personal journey, he became the rock on which Jesus built the church. What we learn from St. Peter underpins our mission of nurturing excellence.
Of course, families of children of all faith and of none are welcome to join our inclusive and caring school community.
Our values
During their time at Northbourne, children are helped to understand the Biblical basis for each of our values. Some key scripture underpins this developing understanding:
Love: “Love is patient and kind…always supportive, loyal and helpful and trusting; love never fails” (I Corinthians 13:4-8)
Community: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (I John 4:11)
Integrity: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31)
Perseverance: “Those who trust the Lord will find new strength. They will be strong like eagles, soaring up on wings; they will walk and run without getting tired” (Isaiah 40:29-31)
Church links
We very much value our links with St. Peters’ Church. We enjoy our termly church services and our God’s Storyteller worship, which Rev. Hannah Reynolds leads for us in school each Monday. Find out more about St. Peters’ on their website, and look at our Worship Policy to find out more about this important part of our school day.
Our RE curriculum
As a Church Aided school, our governors determine the RE curriculum taught to pupils. Our long-term plan for this is here.
Church school inspection
As a Church School, Northbourne School has an additional statutory inspection every 5 years. This inspection, known as SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools) is independent of Ofsted and evaluates the distinctiveness and effectiveness of Northbourne as a church school. Our last SIAMS inspection took place in February 2017 and judged us to be outstanding overall, with strengths in collective worship and our distinctive Christian character.