Our School Prayer
As a Church School, we have chosen the Parable of the Good Shepherd (Luke:15) as our core value - everyone in our community matters and we all work together to ensure that each and every child with us gets the most from their time with us. We know all of our children as individuals and we go out of our way to make sure they all flourish and succeed.
Our School Parable
Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbours together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
Luke: 15
Our Church School Vision
'Building friendships, inspiring confidence, creating futures, nurturing faith’ - ensures every pupil’s future, faith and development is paramount; we have chosen ‘The Good Shepherd’ as our parable as we celebrate the steps we take to bring everyone into our fold, enabling them to flourish and succeed.
Our Church School Values
Each week we have collective worship linked to one of our Church School Values: Hope, Friendship, Honesty, Love and Respect. See our Collective Worship themes for more details!
Our Christian Ethos
Our Church School values live through our work in school but also through our links with the wider community. Our school is right next door to the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Titchmarsh and we have a fortnightly Church Collective Worship in the church itself led by the Reverend Annabel and the Reverend Andy - you can see the dates on our calendar and we hope you can join us.
We are also part of the Diocese of Peterborough (https://www.peterborough-diocese.org.uk/) and join them for training, for local services and support.
Our most recent SIAMS inspection was in September 2024 and the report can be found on this page.
Our Church Council
Our Church Council was set up in November. Titchmarsh Primary is a Church of England School and we want to help our school and wider community to understand and enjoy worshipping God. The members are elected by their classmates. We are very pleased to welcome two representatives from each class from Reception to Year 6. Mrs Toyne, our R.E lead in school, and Mrs Fortescue, our RE Link Governor and Foundation Governor are also members and support us with Church Council.
There is a Church Council board close to the office so please check for the latest agenda and minutes.
There were lots of things the Church Council were unable in the past due to Covid, so this year we are going to be busy making a difference to our school and wider community and we are making up for lost time! You can see the Coin Challenge we held in January 2024 and we raised more money than we expected so can help more people through the Little Faces charity.
RE at Titchmarsh
Religious Education helps us to understand our Christian values, and the values of other religions, in more detail and helps us to apply our understanding in a range of situations and topics. By reflecting and thinking about our values, world events and Bible stories, we are able to use these values as part of our everyday lives, enriching our own experiences and the lives of others we meet, just as it says in our school prayer. By linking our Collective Worship to different values and events, we are able to understand how we should feel, act and support others.
Our RE curriculum can be found on this page and shows the range of topics and religions we cover, reinforcing our values each day and through our reflection, prayers and work.
Our Spiritual Development
We pray each day for food and families and reflect on how fortunate we are to have food readily available to us and we have time each day, through our Collective Worship, to think and reflect on the messages in our worship and on our own deeds and actions. There are areas in the school for individual reflection in our prayer spaces - one in the Owlets' classroom, one outside the Hall and one in the KS2 area where we can sit and think quietly about our thoughts and our actions. Everyone is invited each day to reflect and, through our school vision, there are clear opportunities for us to be focus on our spiritual development.
At present, we are focusing on the Respect Agenda, understanding the history, values, successes and achievements of different cultures, through Reading, History and Geography, Music and Collective Worship and we use The Big Write and our PSHE and SRE lessons to understand the importance of positive, healthy relationships and using our Christian values as a way of helping everyone to live their lives in the best way possible.
We regularly raise money for charities such as Macmillan and Children In Need but we also recognise the importance of doing, and not just giving - we brought in food for our Harvest that was donated to the Thrapston Food Bank so that others would benefit and we wore Odd Socks for Anti-Bullying Day to think about actions, kindness and how we can make sure we treat people in the best way we possibly can.
We also created a kindness tree created by everyone in school! Please see our Spirituality Document for more details!
Our Courageous Advocacy at Titchmarsh
What is a courageous advocate?
A courageous advocate is someone who champions a cause which is special and meaningful to them.
At Titchmarsh, we have a strong emphasis on encouraging our pupils to become courageous advocates, not just locally, but nationally and globally.
At some point in life we will all face challenges and need support to help us overcome these barriers. We teach our children that it is important to help others when we can no matter who they are, where they come from or what challenges they may face. We teach this through the teachings of the Bible and learning about other courageous advocates. To emphasise the importance of being a courageous advocate, we regularly learn about key people in our Collective Worship who have faced difficulties and challenges and have made a difference to all our lives - people include Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Ada Lovelace, Louis Braille and Marie Curie. Our Christian values and carefully planned opportunities in our curriculum ensure that the children regularly discuss and debate the big issues, to challenge injustice and to engage in activities that can bring about change are always present.
This links to our school parable as it shows how we will always, as a community, look out for each others and those who may be lost or need help and support.
It is important for our children to appreciate their role as part of a community; to take responsibility, to be able to look after themselves & to foster an understanding of their importance, impact and influence in the world. We support a range of charities in our local area, nationally and globally. The Church and School Councils work with staff, governors, parents, pupils and our parish Church to identify worthy causes to support.
In recent years we have carried out a range of different fund raising to support many good causes, some of which include:
- Thrapston Food Bank through our Harvest Donations and we have given harvest bags to members of our community;
- Sport Relief and Comic Relief;
- Children in Need;
- Macmillan Coffee Mornings in the Church with the local community;
- The Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.
Our children have an excellent grasp on the meaning of belonging to a local and global community and the sense of responsibility that comes with belonging. Thereby developing their ability to empathise and make a small sacrifice to benefit others. Together we consider the beauty and fragility of our environment, the actions we take, and the impact these actions may have on the well-being of everyone. Our school community and curriculum actively embraces a responsibility for the world in which we live. We are diligent to show our connection with, and care for, the world in which we all live and care for the people who live in it:
- Links with the community - harvest gifts and meeting the community on our May Day walk alongside inviting the community to join our Church Collective Worships;
- Charities of significance to our children;
- School and Church Councils who seek the views of pupils as to which causes we want to support;
- Strong FOTS events with community events such as Christmas and Summer Fayres, discos and film nights;
- Strong links with local pre-schools;
- Our Executive Headteacher writes in the local village newsletter to reach out to the community.
Examples of our Courageous Advocacy
The Owlets receive their Bibles at the Harvest Festival Pupils raise money for Children In Need
Our Eagle Owls Class created our Remembrance Tribute
In January 2024, we held a 'Coin Challenge' to raise money for our sponsored Charity 'Little Faces'. We covered maps of Kenya and the UK in coins. We hoped to raise £30 but raised an incredible £151 in total! Well done, everyone. The money will go towards helping our sponsored child in Kenya. As we placed our coins on the map, we thought about what we have and were thankful for the lives we lead. We are also excited to be able to help other children and are proud to be able to play a small part in helping them.
This January, the Church Council have been collecting Candles for Ukraine. We have wrapped the candles and packed the boxes so that the people of Ukraine have warmth and light to help them through dark days. It has reminded us all of the important of light and love and of one of our favourite songs 'This Little Light of Mine'. We have also packed notes which we have written to show that we are thinking of the people of Ukraine and to send them wishes and support. Thank you to everyone who donated candles for this cause.
Look out for more examples of our courageous advocacy on our blogs.
Our Blogs
Please check out our blogs to see what we have been doing in school!
Church School Documents