At St James’ we all strive to be courageous agents of change walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

Courageous Advocacy

Courageous advocacy at St James’ CE Primary School

God's desire for all to flourish (John 10:10)

God's instruction that the orphan, the widow, the fatherless and the foreigner be cared for (Leviticus, Deuteronomy)

Jesus' care for those on the fringes of society

Speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves (Proverbs 31:8)

Jesus' stories about care for others (Good Samaritan)

‘I came to give life, Life in its fullness.’ John 10.10

‘Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire’. Catherine of Siena

The distinct aims and Christian values of St James’ underpin every aspect of school life.

We embrace the Church of England’s vision for education, one that is, is deeply Christian, with Jesus' promise of 'life in all its fullness' at its heart.
 

In line with the Church of England's role as the established Church, our vision at St James’ is for the common good of the whole community.

We are committed to:

 Educating for wisdom, knowledge and skills: enabling discipline, confidence and delight in seeking wisdom and knowledge, and developing talents in all areas of life.

We educate for hope and aspiration: enabling healing, repair and renewal through our behaviour policy and restorative justice strategies, coping wisely when things go wrong, opening horizons and guiding people into ways of fulfilling them.

We educate for community and living well together: at St James’ we have a core focus on relationships, participation in communities and the qualities of character that enable people to flourish together. We enable children to flourish through participation with our ‘Lighthouse’ church group and by adopting ‘Trauma Informed’ strategies in school.

We educate for dignity and respect: the basic principle of respect for the value and preciousness of each person, treating each person as a unique individual of inherent worth. Our behaviour blueprint and use of consistent spiritual language allows for our school community to thrive.

St James’ CE primary school is dedicated to fostering a love of learning and an enthusiasm for joining in with all aspects of school and community life. We are committed to giving all pupils equal opportunities and discrimination is not tolerated. Our aims, values, vison,and curriculum, encourages greater involvement in environmental issues and an understanding of complex interdependencies in the global community.

In the past we have supported a range of charities: local, national and international as a whole school. This is linked to our school vision, understanding that through God ALL things are possible. As our children develop their understanding of Christianity, they realise that to be a Christian is to care for others and to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.

This year we have supported several charities such as: Tom’s pantry (our local foodbank), the British legion and our Ghanian child called ‘Prosper’.

Types of courageous advocacy

There are so many different forms that advocacy can take. At St James’ we have broadly grouped these into certain types:

 1. Awareness raising:

 The whole school took part in World Peace Day with the aim of developing an awareness of culture and diversity thus bringing more tolerance to our local community. Throughout the day pupils spent time in our Peace garden where they were able to plant a pebble of peace. They also completed peace pledges for themselves and to each other.  We shared this day with our parents who came into school and shared their different cultures and traditions.

 2. Community influencing:

 At St James’ we hold a ‘Vicar on the box’ worship celebration at the end of each term. Our school Reverend welcomes all members of the local community to come and share in our Christian messages of love and kindness to all. We also work with our local ‘Lighthouse church group’ to become agents of change through God’s love in the knowledge that through him all things are possible.

Throughout the year, we participate in various fundraising events such as: Harvest (donations sent to Tom’s pantry – a local foodbank, Remembrance day- raising money through poppies for the British Legion. We also raise money for Comic Relief- whole school fundraising projects to help children in our country and around the world who are less fortunate than ourselves. The school encourages the pupils to have a global understanding and embrace the opportunity to inform and educate the school and wider community in taking positive actions for social injustice, human rights, diversity and the sustainability of our world.

3. Lifestyle changes

 At St James’ we make a conscious effort to reduce waste by encouraging staff and children to reuse water bottle in order to reduce plastic.

4. Consumer power

Our Eco-monitors have the responsibility to ensure that we are reducing consumer waste by switching lights off when not in use. We also encourage our children to pick up litter and recycle clothing when appropriate.

 5. Engaging with decisionmakers

After finding out about the issues with knife crime in the Wigan area, pupils wrote to the local MP, appealing to her to ensure that more is done to tackle knife crime.

Our St James Courageous Advocates

To have a secure understanding of what courageous advocacy is, each class in the school study a courageous advocate from across the globe, that have faced injustice and have had to overcome barriers in order to help others for the greater good. The children at St James’ create a scrapbook about what they have learnt, their reflections on what injustice some of these courageous advocates have faced and how they changed the world for the better.

The following table shows the courageous advocates that each class learns about:

At St James’ we are courageous advocates. We are committed to developing citizenship in preparation for life within the local, national and global communities and engage in social action for change.

In the knowledge that all things are possible with God, we believe that we should do all the good we can to make a difference to others just like Jesus did.

The children had a visit from the police on knife crime and then wrote to the local MP to ask how she was going to tackle the issue.