Our School Ethos, Vision and Values
At St Michael’s Catholic School our mission is to develop each member of our school community so that everyone can reach their full potential in the teachings of Christ and with the values from the Gospel. We, the staff, children and governors fully commit to living out the Gospel values fully embracing our school mission statement
Our School Mission Statement
‘Finding Christ in each other.’
‘Catholic Education is above all a question of helping to form Christ in the lives of others.’
Pope John Paul II
Curriculum Vision
We work together to promote Catholic values based on the teachings of Christ and to bring all members of the school community – staff, children, parents and governors – closer to God through the daily practice of those values in all areas of school activity and through the school curriculum.
Christ is at the centre of all we do at St Michael’s School.
Our pupils’ backgrounds, our culture and our climate for learning provide the following drivers that underpin our curriculum and our vision.
- Catholic values – which helps pupils grow spiritually and give them values for life outside of school
- Historic Environment – which helps pupils to understand and appreciate their locality which facilitates their relationship to the wider world
- Resilience – which helps pupils grow as learners
- Independence – which helps pupils to grow as independent learners, not dependent on adults to learn
- Subject knowledge and skills – which help pupils develop their academic skills and give them knowledge for life
- Tolerance – respecting and valuing the beliefs, values, choices and opinions of others
At St Michael’s Catholic Primary School we want all children to experience
- Success and having their success celebrated
- Resilience, perseverance, challenge and support so they have the confidence to aim high and aspire to more
- Spiritual, moral, social and cultural experiences threaded through all we do which will facilitate them with all they need to face the any and all futures
- Feeling safe and knowing what to do to keep safe and what to do if they don’t feel safe
- Cultural opportunities that they may not experience outside of school
- The history and beauty of the city of Durham and their local environment
- High expectations leading to high quality outcomes
- Being part of community as a class, school, village, parish, nation and family group
Provides first hand learning experiences to inspire and engage the children in new learning and encourage them to try new things.
At St Michael’s School we recognise that not all the children have the same experiences in life and therefore may be at a disadvantage with regard to using this experience to support them with their learning.
As a result of this, the school in committed to providing curriculum enhancement opportunities throughout their time at St Michael’s which not only support their education, but personal development as well, such as: visit a castle or museum, stay overnight etc.
When mapping out the long-term plan for the Curriculum these experiences have been considered with regards to the school trips that are offered each year.
In addition, we carefully plan out sporting experiences and competitions through-out the year and for different year groups. Some of the sports children may participate in outside of their usual P.E. lessons are: Hoopstarz, Wheelchair basketball, cycling, golf, lacrosse, den-building and archery. This presents the children with opportunities to not only participate in a possible new sport but also gain the experience of competing against others.
As a Catholic school, the children have regular opportunities to visit the school’s church and experience being in a church building and meeting members of the Church parish.
