Godfrey Ermen, local cotton mill owner, left money when he died for “the benefit of any charitable philanthropic literary or educational institution . . . or in the formation and maintenance of hospitals, libraries, baths, wash-houses, model cottages, and generally in support of any object which may seem worthy of encouragement and assistance.”
Reflecting on our Christian foundation, the Bible reminds us through St Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians:
By honouring God and our trusted foundation, we desire to live out our values by encouraging each other to work together, serving God and our community, to be the best we can be for ourselves, our families, our community and the wider world.
Personal Excellence - work hard, follow our learning rules
Respect & Friendship - be kind and gentle, care for our environment
Inspiration & Innovation - listen, be honest
Determination & Resilience - feel confident to try and know we can make mistakes, not give up
Equality - be fair, keep each other happy
These values are built into the ethos and teaching of the school and are modelled by everyone at Godfrey Ermen.
At Godfrey Ermen Primary School we aim to be distinctive in our Christian character by living out our school values daily.
Collective Worship is a key part of our school day, setting the tone for the behaviour and ethos of our school family. As a Church of England school, Religious Education is a central part of the curriculum. Here children learn more about aspects of Christianity and gain an understanding and appreciation of other religions too.
We enjoy close links with our Church, St Michael and All Angels with St Catherine, which is situated on Liverpool Road in Peel Green. Although this is a short walk away we arrange lots of joint events each term, such as Assemblies, Messy Church and Church Services. You can find out more about our Church by following the link on this page. There are also Family Services at St Michael's Church on the first Sunday of every month - it would be lovely for you to join us!
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We also teach the children about the importance of British values, including democracy, the rule of law and individual liberty.
Godfrey Ermen’s School community is based on the model of a Christian family showing Christian love and provides grounding in the Christian faith for all its children. Christian values are built into the ethos and teaching of the school but we also promote empathy and the understanding needed in a multi-cultural society. Godfrey Ermen’s School attaches high priority to forging links between home, school and the church, thus promoting greater unity within the community. Our school is a partnership between parents, carers, educators and friends.
Godfrey Ermen is committed to actively promoting the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different values and beliefs; our pupils are encouraged to develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain.
At Godfrey Ermen, we inspire a love of learning and aim to develop lifelong learners with the skills to achieve a bright and happy future. We encourage independence, resilience and resourcefulness and through a rich and challenging curriculum which encourages enquiring minds and reflection.
Messy Church is held at Godfrey Ermen Primary School and helps people find out more about Jesus.
It uses hands-on activities to explore Bible stories, to reflect a God of creativity and to give people a chance to play, sing and pray together.
It reflects a God of unconditional love and is a Church for people outside a conventional 'Church'.
Messy Church is about hospitality, expressed most evidently by eating together – whether it’s a plate of sandwiches to share, or sausage and mash!
Following Diocesan guidelines, we are continuing our First Holy Communion programme with our Year 3 pupils. We adopt an inclusive approach here at GEMS in all we do, with this in mind, we feel this programme reflects our school values and community where pupils learn, play, eat and worship together.
Our Programme is called ‘Welcome to the Lord’s Table’ which is a diocese approved inclusive holy communion programme made up of 12 teachable units which will be taught as part of our school’s RE curriculum for all year 3 pupils during the spring and summer terms (you can opt-out of final sacrament).
The units are composed into 3 blocks: Two blocks of four units and one block of 3 units. The programme is centred on storytelling and relating the stories to the children's lives. the stories are mainly taken from Mark's Gospel. The teaching includes practical activities, class discussion and reflection tasks. Each child will also be given an activity book to complete a short task at home after each session.
At the end of each block there will be a ‘Marking the journey’ service - the first two are celebration services and the final service at the end of the programme is the holy communion service itself.
Your role as parents and carers wil be to support your child throughout this journey, you will be required to help your child with their 'at home' activities and attend all 3 'Making the journey' services with them. (All 3 services must be attended for your child to be able to take final sacrament.)
Over the year, at Godfrey Ermen we have a programme of events to raise money for different chairities. This is part of our Christian Ethos and helps our children to develop a sense of citizenship – in terms of individual engagement, participation in collective school activities, and engendering a broader sense of social responsibility.
In 2020/21 we supported both The Poppy Appeal and Children in Need and we also did a food collection for local families.
We suported The Austrilian Red Cross raising £610.35, we raised £1000 for the NSPCC and we raised £262.49 for Sport releif.