SIAMS Report - Levens CofE VC Primary School
SIAMS summary evaluation March 2024
Loving to Learn, Growing Together, Caring for All
‘Let your roots grow down to him and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth that you were taught; and you will overflow with thankfulness’ Colossians 2:7
The vision for our school is embodied by all stakeholders though the leadership of our Christian Vision Group. It is rooted in our shared belief that by building our lives on the foundations of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, we will be all be able to be the best that we can be and lead fulfilled lives. The sycamore tree on our school logo is derived from the tree that stood outside school when it was first built. As our ‘roots’ reach deep down into the life and teachings of Christ, we grow, learn and care for one another, enabling us all to flourish.
Our School proactively seeks to develop and extend strong links with local, national and global partners enabling us to positively contribute to our community and learn from and appreciate our the rich cultural heritage and the diverse nature of modern Britain.
Links with St. John's Church, Levens:
Open The Book:
Our Open the Book team are welcomed into School every Tuesday morning,. The team is made up of members of our St. Johns' Church. With the help of the children, they act out a different Bible story each week with wonderful costumes, props and music. These stories give us an opportunity to develop our knowledge of God's Big Story and reflect on how these events and stories are relevant to our own lives. Open the Book is a highlight of our week; the children love playing an active part in each performance.
Events at St. John's Church:
Throughout the year, school and church come together to worship together with our pupils and their families at St. John's . We have a calendar of services that are led by Reverend Bryan and the children. These include: Harvest, Christmas, Easter and our Y6 Leavers' Celebration at the end of the school year.
We are also involved in a range of 'experience events' hosted in church or in school. In recent years, these have included Experience Easter, Experience Pentecost and Experience Eucharist. Each event enables us to explore an aspect of the Christian calendar in great depth, for example during our week of learning in 'Experience Easter' each class joined six interactive stations that enabled us to extend our knowledge and understanding of the Easter Story and it's relevance to our lives. These included: Servant King, Hopes and Dreams, Remember Me, Alone, Sharing our Sorrows and Resurrection.
Each autumn, we join together in a service of Harvest thanksgiving. We bring gifts and we help raise money to support projects in other countries, so that they can overcome hardship caused by drought, flood, disease etc and be able to become self-sufficient farming their land successfully. We also collect items to donate to our local foodbanks in both Kendal and Milnthorpe. Children from all across school contribute prayers, songs, reflections and their thoughts on the meaning of Harvest.
In previous years we have also supported the Bishop's Appeals in Malawi and Zululand.
Our Christmas Carol Services take place in the last week of term at St. John's Church. Our junior pupils retell the story of Christ's birth through readings role play and stories. They also share prayers to help us reflect on the true meaning of Christmas and pray for people all around the world who are suffering at this special time of year.
In the lead up to Easter we listen and respond to the Easter story in different ways including: role-play from our Open the Book Team, RE lessons, collective worship and visits to St. John's Church for our 'Experience Easter' event and our Easter Service at the end of term.
Courageous Advocacy;
There are many examples of pupils - either individually or collaboratively - demonstrating a genuine personal drive to take action to instigate change - on a local, national and global scale.
Harry is currently working hard in his own time to raise money for endangered animals by supporting the World Wildlife Fund. He is hoping to encourage more of us to get involved on a wider school project to go way beyond his initial target of £100. Read all about it on the WWF website by following this link:
https://www.wwf.org.uk/fundraise/do-your-own-fundraising
Children in Year 5 & 6 have led our projects on Toilet Twining. They presented information about the different countries we could support and then organised a whole school vote for every pupil and member of staff. With our fundraising activities in school, we had enough money to sponsor two toilets in two different countries,
Links Overseas:
We have strong links with a children's school and orphanage in Uganda called Blessed Hill. This involves writing to our friends in Uganda during the year, fundraising events and learning about the school and life in Uganda through assemblies and in our curriculum learning too.
Blessed Hill was the focus of our Christmas fundraising in December 2024 as we supported the centre's brick appeal, raising money to buy bricks for a new toilet and shower block. The children and our families raised an incredible £385.77!
