At The West Grantham Church of England Secondary Academy, we offer an education that is distinctively Christian as we endeavour to embed our core values of integrity, love, ambition, courage and belief into every lesson and, indeed, throughout the Academy day – for students and staff.
We have an Academy Chaplain whose key role is bringing and sharing the Gospel values embodied in the school’s vision and ethos to the whole school community.
We offer our students a Christian understanding of their place in humanity. This is reflected in offering a daily time for reflection during tutor time every day and weekly Collective Worship. Students are encouraged to participate and lead in Collective Worship around topics as varied as the parable Jesus taught to appreciating and learning about other faiths and religious practices.
We work within a framework of discipline that demonstrates a readiness to seek and offer and thrive on forgiveness.
We share the Christian hope and experience that the greatest power in life and beyond is selfless love – a profoundly counter-cultural viewpoint and one that has the power to bring change in our community. Our weekly parent ‘drop in’ coffee mornings at the Hope Community Café and ‘Staff Prayer’ after school serve as a relational bridge and promote hope, understanding and a sense of community both within and outside the academy doors.
Through daily reflection and weekly Collective Worship and familiarity with our Academy Prayer, students are offered a knowledge of how to pray, while at the same time respecting those of other faiths who cannot engage in Christian worship. The weekly lunchtime ‘Friendship Club’ for KS3 and ‘Wellbeing Club’ for KS4 offer a space for students to make friends, share life experiences and enjoy playing games and reflecting on life together.
We offer an awareness of the challenge of the spiritual life within everyday experience; this is the very real battlefield that our students inhabit every day of their lives. Through open and frank conversations, we try to show our students that the challenges will always be there, but there is a hope and a power in believing in God and this can help them in their daily walk. Through ‘Chaplain Check-ins’ with the Academy Chaplain, students’ mental health and wellbeing are emphasised, and early identification and support issues can be identified early.
We believe in each student knowing and understanding and using their God-given gifts and talents. By placing the Gospel values at the heart of everything we do in the Academy, students are encouraged to explore, offer insights and develop their thinking and understanding beyond the classroom and their community. Weekly Enrichment sessions give students the opportunity to explore different activities as diverse as archery, cooking, clay sculpture and mindfulness.
We respect the beliefs of other faiths and promote a sense of inclusion. We also celebrate the identity and nature of culturally and diverse groups. We are proud of our rich and culturally diverse student body at West Grantham Academy; we seek to promote an understanding and a culture of tolerance of each group, whether it be faith or belief or lifestyle choices.
We love to invite members of the community into the academy to share their beliefs during Collective Worship and are proud of our links with other churches in Grantham. Currently, we have the Youth Pastors of Alive Church and St Anne’s as well as the lead pastors of the Earlesfield Community Church and the Baptist Church leading Collective Worship once a term.
We offer hope even in the most impossible and saddest of situations. The Academy Chaplain’s door is always open – to provide a neutral resting place, a space to share grief, worry, anxiety, loss… and a space to wrestle with the marvellous mystery of life.
‘I have come so you may have life in all its fullness.’ John 10:10