The 300-year legacy of Mary Dean is being brought into the present by our school community. 
By acknowledging its historical foundations and developing them to suit the modern day, we aim to preserve our Christian character in accordance with the principles and practices of the Church of England. We have highlighted the significance of our Christian values and spirituality whilst striving for excellence in the curriculum and in our relational approach, which fosters respect for others irrespective of faith or belief.
Our Christian vision based on John 10:10 highlights Mary Dean’s desire to provide more than a curriculum for our children and wider community. Through a broad, personalised curriculum which provides the opportunity to develop skills, relationships and experiences, we aim to enable our children and staff to positively approach their future, knowing that they have the school family and the teachings of Jesus to guide them.
Collective Worship is a statutory requirement for all schools in England and Wales. At Mary Dean’s CE Primary School worship is the bringing together of our school family. It is a time when we meet, learn, reflect and celebrate together. Worship is led by teachers and church leaders during which our Christian values, spirituality and British Values are developed through discussion often based on the Ricketts Grids, teachings, and music. A weekly worship is led by the Head Teacher following God’s Big Story Worship, which is then developed throughout the week. This is closely linked to the big frieze which helps children to revisit bible stories, and to the Understanding Christianity scheme of learning in the classroom. Rev. Gerda and the Open the Book team lead worship, as do each class biannually based on a relevant bible story or teaching. It is our aim to celebrate key festivals in St Mary’s and the children have the opportunity to visit the church to deepen their learning.
Our Vision Group has been focused on how Christianity has been portrayed in our school. They have worked with children from across the school to complete our worship board containing the different liturgical colours, they have read bible stories and provided activities for our younger children leading up to key Christian festival and have been instrumental in allocating key stories to our Christian values – after much debate.
Mary Dean’s CE Primary School has also adopted the values of First Federation of Aspire, Flourish and Achieve, as we believe that children’s development and progress is best achieved by nurturing the individual within a range of class or intervention-based relationships alongside the feeling of belonging to a family within our school. With the confidence that this provides, our children then have the drive to aspire to be the best people they can be. Finally, our broad and tailored curriculum then enables the children to achieve their goals.