Spirituality

I have come in order that you might have life – life in all its fullness. (John 10:10)

Our Christian values are interwoven throughout school life creating an inclusive, secure, stimulating learning environment following Jesus’ example ensuring everyone is loved as an individual. We aim to inspire a lifelong passion for learning, through excellent teaching, encouraging perseverance, curiosity and confidence, trusting in God and utilising our talents to benefit others.

Our vision is embedded within the Christian values of:

Trust, Respect, Honesty, Perseverance, Responsibility.

At St Mary’s CE Primary School, we believe that it is very important to provide all children with a range of opportunities to help them develop spiritually. We believe that spiritual development is not synonymous with Religious Education and Collective Worship and can be explored through many different curriculum areas.

“Spirituality is by its very nature difficult to put into words. It is very personal and there is no one agreed definition. However, many people would define it as essentially about recognising something other or bigger than ourselves and how we relate to that. This can be seen in an endless variety of ways… for some it might be through the arts, for others through solitude, in nature or through their faith position.” –  Carlisle Diocesan Board of Education

As a school our vision is at the centre of infusing everything we do. We then use the concept of Wait, Watch, Wonder and weave this throughout our curriculum to provide varied opportunities to help our children’s spiritual development flourish.

We have created  a common language and understanding based on the Indian Proverb that says:

‘Everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every  day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.’ 

We use Rebecca Nye’s 6 principles of ‘S.P.I.R.I.T’ as a checklist to ensure that we are meeting all of our children’s spiritual needs. This also underpins our shared language and understanding of spirituality within our school.

SPACE – PROCESS – IMAGINATION – RELATIONSHIP – INTIMACY – TRUST