British Values

As well as supporting our children’s social and moral development through the teaching of our school values, we also actively promote British Values and help our children develop their own understanding of what it means to be British.

 

 

In accordance with the Department for Education, we define British Values as being:

Democracy

As well as lessons in our PSHE scheme around Me and My Community, all children are taught about democracy as part of our annual School Council cycle. Each class are taught about what it means to live in a democracy, the process of elections and the roles of elected representatives. They then participate in a school-wide election week, where children can put themselves forwards for School Council and campaign for votes, standing for one of our School Value political parties. Every child then votes, and the winners are announced – sometimes by our local MP, Zara Sultana. Our School Council then lead the school in representing each class’s views and contributing to other local events, such as the Pupil Parliament event at the University of Warwick.

 

The Rule of Law

The place of laws in society is also covered through our PSHE Me and My Community topics, for example in year 5 where children will investigate the links between laws, local and national government and democracy. We also refer to laws when promoting our school values in assemblies and ensure children understand the link between our behaviour expectations and laws in the wider society. Community visits, such as from local police officers, also help the children understand how laws inform people’s jobs and responsibilities in our local community. Year 6 also develop links to local magistrates and visit the National Justice Museum in Nottingham as part of their Crime and Punishment topic.

 

Individual Liberty

Children are taught in school about the importance of their own choices and the impact they have on people around them. Throughout our PSHE scheme, children are taught about the importance of personal responsibility and how they can contribute to their local community. Our bespoke PSHE curriculum also emphasises the role of personal safety, whether it be in the home, when outside, online or in their future relationships. We also teach and empower the children to ask and answer their own questions about life, morality and beliefs, such as in our specially developed philosophy for children schemes, Delphi Philosophy, in Years 3 and 5.

 

Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those of Different Faiths and Beliefs

Respect is one of our key school values and underpins everything we do and every part of our curriculum. We always reinforce ideas of respect and equality in the way we promote positive behaviour in school and is often a feature of our weekly celebration assemblies. We also actively promote and celebrate the wide diversity of languages, cultures, religions and backgrounds of our local community, such as acknowledging religious festivals such as Christmas, Eid and Diwali, and celebrating events such as Black History Month. Our R.E. curriculum is also structured in such a way that children are able to compare and find common links between different religions and cultures and recognise that this diversity is something to be celebrated in our community.