At St Silas CE Primary Academy, our Christian vision is the foundation for everything we do. It inspires us to cultivate a culture that is both deeply nurturing within our school family and actively engaged in the pursuit of justice and responsibility in the wider world. This dual focus means living out our values in two essential directions: inwards by ensuring everyone within our community is known, loved, and treated well and outwards by challenging injustice and serving the common good in our community and beyond.

We focus on the internal life of the school; how pupils, staff, and families experience relationships day-to-day and belong to our school community. This is about moving beyond optimism to hope, ensuring love is a practical reality rather than just a word. We aim to create a culture where everyone feels known, loved and cared for.

Our vision shapes our policies, not just our worship.  We see behaviour as being relational; when pupils see peers alone, they’ll invite them to play - not because they are told to, but because showing love is part of the school’s culture.

Our school's vision influences all parts of our school, including the daily functioning of our school, such as our charging policy, staff appraisal, and our behavior policy.

At St Silas CE Primary Academy, we create an active culture of justice and responsibility

We constantly ask ourselves, how the school looks outward to serve the common good. This culture is often driven by Jesus's commands to take action.  We look towards inspirational figures from the past and present like Elizabeth Fry, Florence Nightingale, Martin Luther King Jnr, and Malala Yousafzai; people who have aspired not to have more, but to be more. 

Justice looks different in every community. At St Silas, we’ve adapted our language to make our message less theologically complex. We created a strapline, ‘Loving God and each other, we work together to be the best that we can be’. This is at the heart of our school.

Courageous Advocacy is encouraged. This involves empowering pupils to make ethical choices, challenge injustice and become agents of change. It’s not about charity fundraising; it’s about pupils understanding why they are acting as they are.

Partnerships: We have specific partnerships locally, from our school’s church (St Silas), to one of the local nursing homes, to our local cluster of schools. These partnerships are often historical, but they also actively express our ideas for justice, that all people in our partnership are important and have a voice.