English Martyrs' Catholic Primary School was judged to be Outstanding by Ofsted in January 2016.

Key findings:

• The school is a warm, welcoming, and inclusive place where individuals, both staff and pupils, are valued.
• Pupils’ behaviour is superb. They are self-motivated to be friendly, show good manners, and demonstrate high levels of self-discipline when not directly supervised by adults.
• The strong teaching of the Catholic faith is exceptionally well balanced with meaningful learning about other faiths and beliefs. This leads to a caring, tolerant atmosphere in school where everyone is valued for who they are and what they can do.
• The curriculum has been carefully thought out to ensure that it is relevant to the pupils in the school. The range of subjects and topics pupils study is comprehensive and well balanced. It is exceptionally well enhanced by trips, visitors to the school, assemblies, and links with the local community.
• Pupils make outstanding progress in English and mathematics because the
  impact of teaching over time is excellent.
• Achievement is outstanding because pupils make consistently fantastic progress in speaking, reading, writing, and mathematics.

We follow the example and teachings of Jesus in every aspect of our school life.

Our Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Policy states how this is achieved through the whole curriculum laid down by the Syllabus of the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

We welcome and respect children and adults from other or no faith traditions.

The faith life of our school is developed through SMVSC: Spiritual, Moral, Vocational, Social and Cultural growth. We develop each area by:

Spiritual Development

Supporting our children to reflect on, celebrate and practice their own individual and shared beliefs. They are encouraged to build supportive and loving relationships with others, acknowledging that we are all made in the image and likeness of God. They are taught to manage their feelings and emotions and develop them through prayer. In attending our school our pupils are further supported to celebrate the wonder and awe of God and remember that we are always seeking him in our lives. Through our work in the use of art, music, dance, song and symbols we strive to capture something of the beauty of God’s world.

Moral Development

Our faith encourages strong relationships in class between pupils and with adults. This extends to relationships not only within their year groups but across the whole school family. Everyone demonstrates behaviour principles in line with our faiths and beliefs – pupils to pupils and teacher to pupils etc. There is shared understanding of how we handle behaviour throughout the school by adults and pupils alike e.g. Year 6 are given the responsibility of example setters for the rest of the pupil body. There are many opportunities for reflection on moral issues throughout our thematic curriculum which then supports our class meditation sessions. We have a deep commitment to teaching about moral issues in our classrooms.

Vocational Development

Our pupils and families exhibit a strong commitment to taking part in collective worship. Pupils are committed to engaging in activities which give service to others because they know their faith calls upon them to do so. Pupils and Staff articulate their understanding of belonging (to church, school community, other faith group) and have a personal role in this. Pupils show their independence, self-confidence and ability to make decisions in different situations. We can articulate how we seek to be the best that we can be for the sake of our faith. All members of the school have a strong commitment to our Catholic values and can share how we have been taught these through the gospel readings.

Social Development

At English Martyrs’ we teach the children how to live together in harmony. In doing so we are enabling our children to be loyal, contributing, global citizens of the future. Our pupils understand the need to pray for others and understand their duty to be charitable to others. Our pupils work hard through their School Council, Eco Group and Unicef Children’s Rights to look after their environment in recognition that we are responsible guardians of God’s creation.

Cultural Development

We are lucky enough to have pupils from most parts of the world at English Martyrs’. We recognise and value our different cultural traditions including our own. Our pupils are enabled to understand the importance of belonging to a multi-cultural Church. The provision of art, music, language, dance and symbol is used to develop a knowledge and respect for other cultures.

Each half term we focus on two of the Virtues:

Our chosen virtues this half term are:

learned

wise