Vision and Values

Our Mission Statement

Holy Souls School welcomes you

The School in the Community: The school aims to create a Christian community where the Gospel values are seen to be at work and where interaction is encouraged between home, school, the Parish and wider community.

Holy Souls School is a place where we pray together

Living the Faith: The school is a place where the beliefs and values of the Roman Catholic Faith are taught, learned and lived. Through prayer, worship and liturgy we aim to offer experiences which enrich the Spiritual development of each individual.

Holy Souls is a place where we care

Communication and Relationships: The school is committed to creating a community, which fosters Christian relationships based upon truth, holiness, justice, love, forgiveness, healing and peace.

Holy Souls is a place of Learning

The Curriculum: The school aims to ensure that the curriculum provides a Christian, Catholic context in which children can grow in understanding and the acquisition of skills, attitudes and values. Thereby raising standards and giving the children the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Holy Souls School is a place where everyone is important

Individual support and development: The school endeavours to respect the needs of individual children, teachers and every member of the school community, through the example of Jesus Christ. The Governors wish to emphasise the school aims and objectives expressed through the Mission Statement form the foundation and direction of every aspect of school life.

Our Preferred Future

Our school mission is rooted in our belief that Christ is at the centre of our daily lives. It is our aim to see Christ in others and let Christ be known to others by what we think, say and do. This is what is distinctly catholic about our school and is our rationale behind our statement that Holy Souls is a place where everyone: learns, is welcome, is important, is cared for and prayed for. Holy Souls are proud to be part of the St Teresa of Calcutta MAC.

The preferred future is to succeed in achieving excellence, the very best provision for our children and the very best contribution from our children.

We strive to be proud of our children as Christians, givers of life, good citizens with a strong, faith based, sense of responsibility to others.

We strive to succeed in achieving a healthy, safe, secure environment for our children where their well being is protected and nurtured to enable them to achieve their very best.

The success will be achieved with high expectations by all stakeholders of each other (children, staff, parents, governors, parish community, Local Authority, Diocesan Schools Commission and other service providers). Teamwork support is essential based on modelling and coaching the skills needed to reach targets focused on delivering excellence particularly in learning outcomes.

Successes need to be recognised, rewarded and celebrated by all stakeholders through the mechanism of effective, ongoing monitoring and self evaluation.

Our children will achieve success through their ability to: solve problems by applying thinking skills; be independent; be creative; be literate; be numerate; be ICT able. Underpinning this will be a high level of emotional intelligence based on their faith development.

Our staff will be able to work to high level of consistency to ensure ongoing delivery of excellence.

When any of our stakeholders leave our school community we will be able to say that we achieved success, our very best and that we did it because of our calling to lead a life of faith where Christ is at the centre.

Our School Aims

As a Church School, the love of Jesus Christ is our foundation which we hope will be evident to all who pass through our doors. We hope that it will guide, not only the religious aspects of the curriculum day, but will also be a firm foundation for the whole life of the school. Christian values underpin all that we seek to undertake and achieve.

Our aim is to enable the pupils of Holy Souls and members of the St Teresa of Calcutta MAC to grow physically, mentally, socially and spiritually so gaining respect for themselves, each other and for the whole of God's world. It is important that each child is given the opportunity to develop their potential and we are continuously striving to raise achievement and to provide an education of the highest quality within the context of Christian belief and practice.

Holy Souls Catholic Primary School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all our pupils and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

Robust mechanisms are in place throughout school relating to Safeguarding. Child Protection procedures are followed carefully, in line with the DfE's Keeping Children Safe in Education guide and Holy Souls Catholic Primary School Safeguarding Policy (based upon the Birmingham Policy).

Pupils have a good understanding about being and feeling safe and understand that, when they are able to talk to adults in school at any time when worried about any issues met.

It is our duty to ensure that all children in our care are and feel safe.

At Holy Souls we aim to provide a rich and creative curriculum with the highest expectations for our children to attain high standards in all core skills and subject areas whilst developing their interests and abilities in the wider curriculum.

Our school aims to provide a safe, happy and caring environment where everyone is treated with respect. We aim to encourage good manners and responsibility, promoting a positive attitude to learning by recognising positive behaviour.

To provide an environment where all members of our school community are happy, enjoy school and achieve, they are safe, make healthy choices and make a positive contribution to school life.

To provide the very best education for all of our children where each child's ability is developed through a creative, exciting, enjoyable, skills based and challenging curriculum.

To develop children's natural curiosity and help them to be excited and inspired by their learning.

To build children's self-esteem in an environment of high expectations where effort is recognised and achievement is valued.

To actively celebrate the many, varied achievements and talents of all of our children and to contribute to the development of their future economic wellbeing.

To have mutual respect in all of our relationships in order to create a secure and safe learning environment despite any religious, ethnic, cultural or socio-economic differences.

To ensure that high expectations of effort and best behaviour are promoted through positive experiences for all pupil groups.

To develop the skills for our children to become considerate and capable members of a global community whilst embracing and celebrating opportunities to develop links and create partnerships within the cultural diversity of our world.

To work in partnership with parents, carers, local churches and the community to raise achievement and support social, moral, spiritual and cultural development.

Promoting British Values

British Values are promoted through the Christian Values at Holy Souls.

Democracy

Democratic values are an explicit part of the ethos at Holy Souls Catholic Primary School. All adults listen to the views of the pupils and value their opinions. We actively promote and model democracy at Holy Souls by:

• Ensuring that our children develop knowledge of, and respect for, public institutions and services, eg. visits to/from Police, Fire Service.
• Teaching our children how they can influence decision making through the democratic process through class voting, assemblies and activities during times of elections (local/general).
• Pupils have further opportunity to have their voices heard through our School Council. The elections of School Council and RE Councillors are the result of pupil votes and all of these groups canvas the opinions of their peers.
• Teaching children how public services operate and how they are held to account, e.g. through annual theme weeks.
• Democracy is promoted in EYFS through 'choice' and circle time activities.
• In KS1 Democracy is promoted through the topics studied.
• In KS2 Democracy is promoted through the pupils expressing their views, the activities undertaking and the topics studied. In Year 5, pupils are introduced to the birth of democracy during their Citizenship topic and a visit to Birmingham City Council House taking part in a live debate.

Rule of Law

We actively promote and model the rule of law by:

• Ensuring school rules are clear and fair, eg. through our consistent Behaviour policy.
• Helping children to distinguish right from wrong, eg. by using the example of Christ when dealing with behaviour that is not acceptable.
• Promoting respect for the law and the basis on which it is made, eg. through visitors such as PCSOs, Police, and MP into school.
• Helping children to understand that living under the rule of law protects individuals, eg. through our RE curriculum, through theme weeks and visitors.
• Having a behaviour policy that is linked to restorative justice, eg. that is based in the Christian value of forgiveness.

Individual Liberty

We actively promote and model individual liberty by:

• Encouraging and supporting pupils in developing their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence through our Christian ethos, our way of treating people, investing in meeting the needs of all children, providing equality of opportunity, and understanding the needs of all children.
• Encouraging pupils to take responsibility for their behaviour as well as knowing their rights, through linking rights with responsibilities and having a fair and consistent Behaviour policy.
• Challenging stereotypes with welcoming visitors into school to talk about disability awareness, anti-racism and a high profile anti–bullying week.
• Implementing a strong anti-bullying culture.

Respect and Tolerance

We actively promote and model respect and tolerance by:

• Promoting respect for individual differences through our Christian ethos and RE curriculum and also through Worship and Assemblies.
• Helping children to understand and respect their own and other cultures and ways of life, through RE, Geography, International Links.
• Discussing and celebrating the differences between people such as differences of faith, ethnicity, disability, gender and different family situations such as being a looked after child or a young carer.