Windmill Church of England Primary School
Do Everything in love
The School Vision
1 Corinthians 16:14: Do everything in love
Guided by God’s love, our belief, courage, compassion and advocacy cultivate a love of ourselves, a love of others and a love of learning. As one community and one family, we flourish academically, socially, morally and spiritually achieving our dreams and showing the world just who we are.
Why is vision important?
Having a distinctly Christian vision is the foundation for a CofE school. It lies at the heart of who we are, what we aspire to be and how we get there. When the vision is living and breathing in a school it underpins every aspect of school life and makes the school incredibly special.
Windmill CofE has a very strong vision that lives large in our school and enables us to be our best in all that we do.
How do visions come into being?
Some visions evolve over time but this doesn’t happen by chance. Leaders consult, reflect and change aspects of the vision or the focus of the vision over time. This is in response the changing needs of its community and the ambitions of the school.
Some visions are revolutionary. There is a need to implement a brand new vision as the existing vision isn’t fit for purpose or alive in the school.
What is the vision?
At Windmill we ‘do everything in love’ 1 Corinthians 16:14. This vision has evolved over the relatively short life of the school.
Why that vision?
Windmill was founded by the merger of Brownhill Infants and St Saviours Junior school in 2014. True to the foundation of Church of England schools, Windmill CofE was born to provide faithful education to everyone. This includes educating children with a faith and children with no faith. At that time a vision was built around 1 Timothy 4:12. This spoke to children as young people who were charged with acting as examples in speech, conduct, love and faith. As such the vision was lived through the children who became role models, took leadership responsibility, acted with compassion and embraced the learning and life chances that Windmill offered. This continues today.
The vision came sharply into focus during the pandemic. Windmill became a hub for the community and a constant at a time of great uncertainty. It was evident that the school vision needed to speak to adults in the way that it had spoken to children. Following a period of consultation, the vision evolved into ‘do everything in love’. In this, both adults and children in the community are asked to use the gifts they have to realise their potential becoming the best version of themselves. In doing this we become role models for others and a strong family of individuals who celebrate difference and serve and respect each other. Our pupils continue to act as examples but now the same is asked of staff, governors and parents.
Why did you choose 1 Corinthians 16-14: do everything in love?
It is true that love runs deep through the old testament and the gospels of Christ. There were lots of references we could have used but this one meant more to our community context than others.
We know that Batley is a beautifully diverse community. It was the late Jo Cox (MP for Batley and Spen) that said ‘we have more in common than that which divides us.’ Sadly, we do see divisions in our community and want our school to be a beacon of cohesion in which all children feel valued for who they are. In this we celebrate differences in our beliefs, heritage, ethnicity, abilities and backgrounds. We show the world that we are a one loving family and love the things that make each of us unique.
1 Corinthians 16:14 is Paul’s letter of advice written to the Corinthians. At that time the Corinthians had become intolerant of each other’s belief and practices. They had become a fractured community and where acting selfishly rather than selflessly. Paul used the gospels to advise the Corinthians to put the needs of others before their own. He advised that they serve each other and to focus on what they shared in common. He advised that they follow Christ’s example and do everything in love.
We have children who identify as having no faith and children who follow world faiths including Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. We have children from a huge range of backgrounds and children who have found life hard in other schools. We couldn’t think of a message that captured our vision better. We strive to show our love and use this to flourish into who we are meant to be. We have built a school community of unique and compassionate individuals who inspire our wider community to remember that we have more in common than that which divides us.
We do everything in love.
The School's Christian Values
On Monday September 26th 2016, parents, Governors, children and staff met together with our Local Authority and clergy to discuss the values we wish to see and encourage in our community. The values chosen are an expression of our vision. If we truly ‘do everything in love’ then we will model respect, compassion, faith, courage, forgiveness and equality. We take one value as the main focus for each half term’s collective worship.
