SIAMS

Church School Information

St Chad’s is a Church of England (CofE) Nursery and Infant School, originally founded in 1889. We are a member of the Derby Diocesan Academy Trust (DDAT) and have a long-serving and successful partnership with the Diocese of Derby. 

LOVE God    LOVE Neighbour    LOVE Self   (Matthew 22:36)

Our school vision takes inspiration from and is deeply rooted in the Greatest Commandment:

“Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbour as yourself”.

We are an inclusive school and our vision, though distinctively Christian, welcomes and values all faiths and cultures within our diverse school community. Our school’s core values of love, friendship, compassion and respect sit at the heart of our school community and underpin every aspect of school life. 

Love: “Do everything with love”. (Corinthians 16:14)

Friendship: “Encourage one another and build each other up”. (Thessalonians 5:11)

Compassion: “Be kind to one another”. (Ephesians 4:32)

Respect: “Treat others as you want to be treated”. (Luke 6:31)

We are a popular inner city school and we are very proud of the diverse community in which we serve. The majority of our children come from established Muslim and Sikh families. More recently, we are welcoming a growing number of children from Eastern Europe. We successfully nourish children of Christian faith whilst also welcoming and valuing children and families of other faiths.

Our Victorian building retains many original beautiful features but has been thoughtfully adapted for modern educational needs. As a church school, we have very strong links with St Augustine’s Church (a fifteen-minute walk from our school). Reverend Andy Ward is our Chair of Governors and Reverend Sarah Watson serves as our school Chaplain. Both Reverend Andy and Reverend Sarah lead regular collective worships in school through the academic year. Elisabeth Cartwright is an active member of the church and sits on our Governing Body.  

We strongly promote Christian and British values through our school's LOVE Promise. We:

Look after our school and each other

Only ever do our best

Value everyone and remember our manners

Enjoy our learning!

Our LOVE vision and associated values ensures that our children’s spiritual development is at the core of our school. Our children know that they are special and unique and that they are cherished and loved. We explore many more Christian values within our Collective Worships at a level that the children understand e.g. truthfulness, forgiveness.

Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS):

All Church of England dioceses and the Methodist Church use the Church of England Education Office's framework for the Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS).

The principal objective of SIAMS inspection is to evaluate the distinctiveness and effectiveness of the school as a Church school, and how well the distinctive Christian character and ethos of the school ensure the development and achievement of the whole child or young person.

This is evaluated through four core questions:

  • How well does the school, through its distinctive Christian character, meet the needs of all learners?
  • What is the impact of collective worship on the school community?
  • How effective is the Religious Education? (in VA schools and academies)
  • How effective are the leadership and management of the school as a Church school?

We are very proud of our SIAMS inspection outcomes. In our 3rd July 2019 inspection, we were graded as an excellent church school.  

Further information on SIAMS Inspections can be found here.

Collective Worship
Collective Worship is an integral part of our school day. It is a time when the whole school comes together to praise God and learn about our world and people through the teachings of the Bible, stories and songs. We have our own school prayer, linking to our LOVE values. Times for reflection are a regular feature of weekly class and whole school assemblies. Our children are taught mindfulness to support their spiritual development to support their ability to be calm, still and quiet. Our Collective Worships are organised into four distinct parts: Hello Time; Story Time; Thinking Time; Reflecting Time. Each day there is a song and prayers allowing children time to reflect on what they have heard that day. Children are encouraged to take an active part in Collective Worship and regularly take part in drama and contribute ideas and thoughts. We attend and take part in regular festival services at St Augustine’s Church and educational visits are also made to local places of worship. We run theme weeks to enrich our children’s understanding of faith traditions, for example Our World Week.
 
 
Religious Education
Since 1944, the teaching of Religious Education has been a statutory requirement. Parents may withdraw their children from RE lessons or any part of the RE curriculum. We adhere to the Statement of Entitlement: RE is taught for one hour per week to each class by the class teacher.

We follow the Derby Agreed Syllabus alongside the Understanding Christianity resource. Five key Christian events (God, Creation, Salvation, Incarnation and Gospel) are explored over one academic year. Each event is revisited each year to deepen children's knowledge and understanding of Christianity. We regularly take the children on visits to St Augustine’s Church for special Christian celebrations such as Easter, Harvest and Christmas. We also develop children's experiences of other faiths and religions, particularly those pertinent to our own school context, through our RE lessons and whole school events, including visits to local places of worship.