St John the Baptist CE VA Primary School School Vision

Our Vision Explained:

“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus on whom our faith depends from beginning to end.” Hebrews 12 v1-2

This passage comes from the letter to the Hebrews, one of the letters written to the new Christian Churches explaining and discussing life as a Christian, what Jesus had taught, and how to live life as a loving Christian community.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

Life is described in this passage as a ‘race’ which we are called to run with ‘perseverance’. The race of life is described as marked out for us by God and there’s a sense that everyone has their own path to tread, their own challenges to face. We often think of races as competitions against each other, but this passage starts by talking about the ‘crowd of witnesses’ who are those who have run the race before and those running alongside us; a whole crowd of people cheering us on. We are told that we need to throw off things that stop us from running well, things that entangle us, like bad habits and sins, negative thoughts and things that take our focus off following the path God has marked out for us. There’s a sense of the need to get into training for this race. We need to “Strip down, start running—and never quit!” as it says in The Message translation of this passage.

This race of life is going to take a lot of work, a lot of perseverance. We’re going to have to hang in there and keep going in the ups and downs along the way, but we’re told to fix our eyes on Jesus! He has run the race before, he’s the one who laid down the path, followed it even though it led to his death, and through his resurrection he runs it alongside us as well. If we keep close to him we won’t get lost because he’s the one on whom we can depend. He’s finished the race and he’s here to guide us through our race as well.

Our Vision for St John the Baptist School is that it continues to be a place where everyone is able to join the race and train together; learning and growing, developing their skills and resilience, and celebrating their achievements along the way. We want to continue to surround our children with a crowd of supporters made up of teachers, staff, parents, family and friends who create an atmosphere of love and hope, wisdom and dignity so that every child can ‘run with perseverance the race marked out’. It’s important to us that we celebrate every achievement, every milestone along the way, recognising that everyone has a different path in life, different obstacles to tackle and different challenges to contend with. This race is not about who is winning; it’s about everyone reaching their goal.

Our School Motto has been in place for many years, and our vision is clearly linked to our motto, because we are not suddenly changing direction in expressing our new Vision Statement but renewing and clarifying it so that we can all recognise the way we want to head into the future. Our children already understand many of the qualities and values needed to run the race, both through the teaching and learning they experience at home and at school, and through the Christian values they explore every half term.