At Crookham Infant School we want our pupils and adults to strive for excellence through developing understanding of the virtues and habits that shape individuals and equip them to flourish through life-long learning. We describe this drive for excellence as our pursuit of ‘irresistible learning’. We recognise and value the worth of the individual and promote the spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional and moral development of all so that they are able to live life in all its fullness. Fullness of life is best enabled when we develop the ability to build and sustain loving relationships and this we practise together as Team Crookham. In Team Crookham we celebrate our uniqueness and our togetherness as we respond to the inclusive invitation of Jesus to experience love.

Our vision is the Team Crookham Vision, an expression of all that makes Crookham infant School special. You will find within it a strong resonance with themes identified in ‘Deeply Christian, Serving the Common Good, The Church of England Vision for Education, Autumn 2016.

As a school community we chose the values of Love God, Love Others and Love Learning as the core principles that are important to us; that underpin everything we seek to achieve in school. It was important to us that love is an inclusive and universal value. Whether you are Christian, a member of another faith community or have no faith we hope you share with us the desire to educate your child in an environment that promotes healthy and loving relationships. To us at Team Crookham, loving God encompasses understanding our own worth and the uniqueness of each individual and this aligns closely with the learning habit of reflectiveness.

When we explore Love God, we look at the image of God as a loving Father (as demonstrated in the Parable of the Prodigal Son) and we look with awe, wonder and appreciation at the created world, examining how we can be the best stewards of our natural environment. In Love Others we recognise the richness brought to our lives by our differences and diversity and celebrate working collaboratively for the common good. In learning terms we describe this as resourcefulness and reciprocity. Our inspiration for Love Others is the person of Jesus, who treated all he encountered with dignity and respect. We explore together and seek to replicate the positive impact that Jesus had on the people he met through the Gospel stories and in particular the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Love Learning acknowledges our core function as educators, emphasising the development of the life-long learning habit of resilience. We explore together Jesus the teacher, and his group of learners, the disciples, who faced moments of great challenge which we would describe as ‘being in the learning pit’! With Jesus’ help the disciples were able to persevere in their learning and grow in wisdom, knowledge and skills, which is what we desire for each of our learners in school.

Our school values support the long-term aims of the school as expressed in our vision.