Education in an Anglican setting at Chilton Saint James School

As an Anglican school, Chilton offers a quality education within a context underpinned by our Christian values and beliefs.  

Respect for every person

Christian teaching is underpinned by two great laws: love God and love your neighbour.  These principles form the basis of the Chilton Saint James School code of behaviour and permeate the School’s ethos.

At Chilton, each student is respected without any distinction based on socio-economic status, intelligence, sporting prowess, ethnicity or appearance.  This respect is owed to all persons, whether they are Christians or not.

As an Anglican school we aim to value the whole student, including her talents beyond the intellectual pursuits of the classroom, encompassing the full range of God-given gifts.  The modern researcher Howard Gardner refers to these gifts as ‘intelligences’: inter-personal and intra-personal skills; linguistic intelligence; logical-mathematical intelligence; visual-spatial intelligence; musical intelligence; and bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence.

Faith and Hope

The Christian message is one of faith and hope.  In a material and cynical world, girls are encouraged to have faith in themselves and in God.  We want each girl to grow to believe in her own capacity to achieve and to contribute to the world, whether as intellectual, career woman, community leader, care-giver, politician, sportswoman, musician or in any other realm.

Her faith in God and the strength and beauty of the human spirit is nurtured at Chilton, not only in Religious Education or worship at Assembly, but also in the day-to-day interactions between all members of the Chilton community.

As an Anglican school we are in the business of nurturing hope, in simple ways.  Students learn how to resolve conflict by negotiation and mediation.  They take part in programmes to improve the world through clean-up campaigns and tree planting activities.  They are involved in social service activities such as fund raising, care of children and the elderly.  Hope takes its inspiration from our Religious Education lessons and Christian celebrations.

Learning about both the Christian faith and other faiths is valued at Chilton.  Worship is given priority.  Students are encouraged to value prayer, reflection and quiet.  Above all, we encourage our students to exalt love as the greatest of human qualities.  It is not always easy to love oneself and making oneself lovable is a challenge for all of us.  Similarly, loving others is not always easy.

Community Life and Learning

As an Anglican School, pastoral care is a crucial partnership between students, staff, parents, school, church and the wider community to nurture the holistic development of each young person.

Education is primarily to do with the growth of a person to maturity within herself, in relationship to others and within a relationship with God.  These relationships are critical to our happiness and well-being.  None of us is an island.  

Part of being human is the quest to understand the world and our part in it.  At Chilton we are committed to nurturing and challenging life long learners who are committed to the pursuit of excellence.   To this end we provide a broad, balanced curriculum and teachers whose pedagogy stimulates thinking and learning.  Chilton Saint James School is committed to recruiting high quality staff who accept and teach within the framework of Anglican faith upon which Chilton is based, and providing for their ongoing professional development within this context.

Chilton provides school structures (and constantly reviews them)) to ensure that the needs of students are met through: valuing the individual, providing choices for students and assessing and reporting sensitively and accurately.  Recognition of the breadth of endeavour within Chilton is important to us.  Students are encouraged to view this quest for truth and meaning as lifelong.

The ‘Hidden Curriculum’

Perfecting the structures and policies within our school is only one aspect of being a good school – being an Anglican School.  The ‘hidden curriculum’ also needs attention at all times.  The ‘hidden curriculum’ is what is taught by default as a result of lack of action to prevent.  Bullying, harassment, rudeness, damage to property, foul language and rudeness fall into this category.  We do not permit such actions to go unchecked.  At Chilton ‘we teach what we permit’.

Adult Role Models

The role modelling of adults has a powerful impact on the values of the young people in our care and influence.  Consequently, as an Anglican school we ask all adults within the community to be worthy role models for our girls. 

If adults value family, school and church, so too will the young.  If adults value time for reflection and prayer, so too will the young.  If adults value learning, so too will the young.  Our abhorrence of violence, racism, harassment and bullying will be shared by the young, as will our quests for truth, justice and happiness for all.  Similarly, our positive orientation to life, our honesty and our faith will colour the thinking of the young.