‘Let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth’ – 1 John 3:18
‘For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.’ – Psalm 9:18
A courageous advocate is someone who uses their voice and actions to make a positive difference in the world, stand up for something or someone they believe in and to make a difference.
Life is full of ups and downs and at times all people will face challenges they need help and support in overcoming. Courageous advocacy enables pupils and our school community to develop a greater awareness of the challenges others face and how they, as individuals, can support causes and make a difference in our school community, locally, nationally and globally.
All acts of courageous advocacy at Sutton are driven by our school’s Christian vision. We want our children to thrive and ‘live life in all it’s fullness’ (John 10:10). We cannot have a vision of this for our children without getting our pupils to think about injustice and inequality in the world and standing up for people so that everyone in the world can thrive. Our vision sets out our desire for pupils to love each other and love God’s world. It focuses on instilling in pupils the courage to take risks and stand up for their beliefs and the desire to make a positive difference.
Underpinned by our core Christian values of Compassion, Respect and Friendship, we consider how we can work so that everyone in the world can ‘live life in all it’s fullness’. This is something that goes beyond fundraising and charity work.
Home
Helping at home could include feeding family pets, helping with age appropriate chores such as making beds, laying or clearing the table, reading a younger sibling a bedtime story, gardening; there are lots of things our children can do at home.
School
Our Wellbeing Champions are children from Year 4- Year 6 who complete training with Mrs Carter. Wellbeing champion pupil training empowers pupils to support their peers, reduce mental health sigma, and promote a positive school culture. Training covers active listening, emotional resilience, and creating action plans. Our Wellbeing Champions plan and run daily lunchtime clubs, deliver assemblies and lead wellbeing and mental health days throughout the year. Our lunchtime clubs include Healthy Eating Club, Yoga, Drawing and Book Club and many more, with different clubs introduced each term.
Local Community
We support our local York Food Bank through our annual Harvest service at All Hallows church. This helps children understand the needs of others and also be thankful for their own lives.
We have held fundraisers for SHINE and
International
We have worked closely with Tony from YoYo for years, so when he said he had a lady called Julia staying with his family at the beginning of the Ukraine invasion, we invited her into school to meet the children and share her story. This inspired Tony to take Julia to other schools in York and between us all we produced this beautiful book of poetry that is displayed in school. All proceeds from this book go to supporting ‘Shelter’ run by the Ukranian Christian Sport Academy.
