Visit from Bishop Sophie

On Monday 28th June, we were delighted to welcome Bishop Sophie to our school to officially open our Shalom Garden. She was accompanied by Huw Thomas, the Director of Education for Sheffield Diocese. Our Shalom Garden is a space of prayer and reflection, filled with encouraging Bible quotations, along with lots of beautiful artwork - based around Bible Stories linked to our school vision - that was created by pupils during last year's lockdown. Our Y6 worship council led Bishop Sophie in a tour of the Shalom Garden, where she prayed a prayer of blessing and also cut the official ribbon! This was followed by a wonderful whole school outdoor worship, which included a special performance of the song 'Way maker' from Y6. Then Bishop Sophie visited each class to give the children an opportunity to ask her some thought-provoking questions. Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the afternoon such a great success - it will be remembered at Tankersley for many years to come!

Thank you for visiting our school website.  As a Church of England school, our vision is at the core of our identity and underpins everything that we do. We seek to promote a ‘love of learning in a distinctively Christian environment’ for all of our school family. In the same way that St Peter was nurtured by Jesus and allowed to grow and flourish as a leader, we aspire to help all our pupils to:

• Aim high and have self-belief
• Have community spirit
• Be enterprising
• Have enquiring minds
• Be respectful

We teach all our pupils that ‘they are God’s masterpiece’ (Ephesians 2:10). By aiming high and having self-belief, our pupils are encouraged to flourish and fulfil their God-given potential.

Our school aims to be a thriving community with shared values and aspirations. The Bible teaches us that ‘though we are many, we form one body.’ (Romans 12:5). We seek to develop a spirit of community in our school family and also to be outward looking as we embrace relationships with schools in other areas of the world. We ask ‘who is my neighbour?’ (Luke 10:29) and learn global answers, exploring the wider world around us.

Our pupils are enterprising individuals who think creatively and confidently embrace learning in different ways. Our pupils are taught that they ‘can do all things through Christ who gives them strength.’ (Philippians 4:13).  We encourage all pupils, whatever their background or belief, to stretch themselves spiritually, morally, intellectually, imaginatively and actively. (Church of England Vision for education – Page 10)

Enquiry was central to Jesus' life and teachings. For every question he answered simply, he asked a hundred.  Our pupils encounter Christian faith in a spirit of enquiry.  Jesus said ‘ask and you will receive, seek and you will find. Knock and the door shall be opened to you.’ (Matthew 7:7). Our curriculum is centred around an enquiry based learning approach where we encourage Pupils to question the world around them.

At Tankersley St Peters, pupils are accepted in a spirit of grace. They are not judged. This is rooted in the understanding that we are all created in the image of God. We are loved and accepted by God for who we are.  Pupils are taught to respect one another as individuals and ‘love their neighbour as themselves’ (Luke 10:27)   Tolerance is strongly encouraged and rewarded.  Pupils are taught to accept differences, celebrate diversity and champion justice. 

We have a strong link to our church, St Peter’s and many church members are actively involved in school life. Our Pupils enjoy regular visits to St Peter’s for key Christian festivals throughout the year.

Our school logo consists of a fish and a pair of crossed keys, both of which link to St Peter. The fish is a key symbol used to represent Christianity as the Greek word for fish is ‘Icthus’, which in Greek spells out ‘Jesus Christ God’s Son’. Peter was also a fisherman by trade and he was given the task by Jesus of ‘fishing for people’ (Mark 1:17). The crossed keys are often referred to as the ‘Keys of Heaven’, given to Peter by Jesus. They also represent our desire to unlock the potential inside every one of our Pupils and enable them to thrive.

Each of our school aims is linked to an event from the Gospels or a story that Jesus taught. These are as follows:

• Aiming High & Self-Belief – The Feeding of the Five Thousand (Mark 6: 30-44)
• Community Spirit – The Last Supper (Matthew 26: 26-30)
• Enterprise – The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25: 14-30)
• Enquiry – The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7: 7-8)
• Respect – The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37)

 We also have the highest regard for safeguarding and safety in school and our Keeping safe blog showcases the great work we do in this area.

As an outward looking school and ensure our pupils are aware of the wider world and other communities. We have many awards in this area from the British Council and International schools award.

We hope you enjoy browsing our website as there is never a dull day at Tankersley.     We are committed to ensuring our website reflects the vibrancy of school life.  Our Class Blogs (under the "Classes" tab at the top of the page) celebrate the wonderful learning happening daily in our classrooms. We also have a VIMEO video site which showcases some of our wider opportunities such as school performances and excellence in music. I would like to thank you for taking the time to find out about our school - we are very proud of our school community. If you would like further information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Mrs J. Procter-Blain