“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4.19
Central to our vision is an underlying belief that we are created by God, made in his image and loved by him. We therefore have infinite innate value and potential. This compels us to build excellence for every child in our schools.
Through Jesus Christ God has revealed himself to be love incarnate. This calls us, as a Christian community of schools, to have love at the heart of our work. This love should act as a beacon of who we are. It also acts as a sign of who the God is who inspires this love. This love is why we wish all the children in our schools to be equipped with powerful knowledge. Together with the richness of opportunities we provide, this knowledge builds their character so that they can play a full part in reflecting a God inspired love into society.
As this love stands above us all in our school communities it reminds us that no matter what happens in our lives our schools will always be somewhere where all will be known and belong. This is because we believe that all have an innate worth as children ‘awesomely and wonderfully made’ by God (Psalm 139.14).
Simultaneously, the love and the life of Jesus Christ inspires us as a model for living well together. Two verses from St Paul’s letter to the Romans specifically help exemplify this, ‘Love one another warmly and be eager to show respect for one another’ and, ‘We are part of one body and all belong to each other.’ (Romans 12.10 & 5).
Together, these verses from Psalms and Romans recognise the innate dignity of all in our school communities. They remind us how and why together, we build communities that provide excellence characterised by a warmth of hospitality for all.
The love spoken of in these verses needs to sit alongside the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15.3-7). We are tenacious in our commitment to providing academic and character excellence because we are called to look after every child in our care, ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it.’ (v.4).
In doing so we commit ourselves to providing a transformative education for all. This will not always be easy. There will be obstacles along the way. However, our work, as St Paul reminds us in Romans 12.2 is, ‘not to be conformed to the patterns of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ This reminds us that the transformative education for every child that we provide is rooted in a much bigger Christian story. This is a story that always seeks to build hope and wisdom.
We don’t do this alone. We do so as communities who, together, lean in to our Christian foundations and seek to become ever more like the most radiant people God intends us to be. This, we aim, allows us to build excellence together and so help us become part of the story of serving a thriving society.