Mission Focus for December 2025 -
Great and Little Shelford CE (A) Primary School
Dear members of the Great Shelford Free Church community,
We are touched to be included as the mission focus for December. Thank you for your kind thoughts, prayers and wishes. I am delighted to share a little summary of our vision, work and priorities.
Who are we?
As you may know, we are Great and Little Primary CE (A) Primary School! We are nestled in the heart of Great Shelford, serving the parishes of Great and Little Shelford and beyond! Our vision speaks of a harmonious community founded on love for one another, with this being the root of enabling everyone who is part of our school family to flourish.
Working in partnership:
A key aspect of how we work is through partnerships. We are passionate about meaningful connections at all levels. Whether this is through a focus on caring and nurturing relationships with key stakeholders to international projects with other schools, we know that fostering a sense of community locally and beyond enables our pupils to feel that they belong. We are delighted to continue to work closely with GSFC as a central part of living out our vision. We benefit from receiving worship sessions led by the GSFC team, our communal Prayer Space, special workshops in our Shelford Holy Week and a very kind annual donation. Thank you!
Our current priorities and pressures:
You may hear many different stories about the challenges faced in the education landscape at present and many of these ring true for our school too. Funding continues to be a significant challenge with the picture of increased expenditure and decreased income. This means that the school is currently in a financial deficit position. Careful monitoring outlines that there are no further savings to be made to expenditure, whilst we also creatively find solutions to increase our school’s income.
Most notably, the challenges around the systems for supporting pupils with additional needs is a significant factor. Our local authority is not currently processing many of the requests for support and assessment that we submit within legal timescales. As such, we have pupils who have been waiting for over a year for support. We are a fully-inclusive school and this means that the school continues to provide the very best that it can for each and every learner – even in these challenging times. Our Shelford School Support Fund welcomes donations from anyone wishing to support our work. We hold a specific fund for supporting disadvantaged pupils. Over the years, this has enabled some pupils to access counselling, play therapy and a range of educational visits, along with supporting some enhancements to the physical environment.
We thank the Great Shelford Free Church community for its support of the work of the school and look forward to our strong partnership continuing.
With best wishes, Chris Grey, Executive Headteacher