British Values
At Someries Infant School and Early Childhood Education Centre, we promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs as an integral part of our provision for developing pupils’ spiritual, moral, cultural and social understanding
By actively promoting these values means that we challenge opinions or behaviours in our school that are contrary to fundamental British values. We fully recognise that any attempts to promote systems that undermine fundamental British values are completely at odds with our duty to provide the spiritual, moral, cultural and social elements of our curriculum.
Through our provision of spiritual, moral, cultural and social education, and as appropriate for the age of our pupils, we aim to:
- enable our pupils to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence
- enable our pupils to distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law of England
- encourage our pupils to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and to understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality of the school and to society more widely
- enable our pupils to acquire a broad general knowledge of an respect for public institutions and services in England
- further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling students to acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures
- encourage respect for other cultures
- encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England
Through our promotion of fundamental British values, and as appropriate for the age of our pupils, we aim to develop pupils’:
- understanding of how citizens can influence decision-making through the democratic process
- appreciation that living under the rule of law protects individual citizens and is essential for their wellbeing and safety
- understanding that the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected by law
- acceptance that other people having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour
- understanding of the importance of identifying and combating discrimination
We promote these values through our wide ranging provision and our broad and balanced curriculum. This page of our website – though not exhaustive and only providing information about some of what we do – exemplifies how we promote British values in our school.
Pupils have the opportunity to have their voices heard through our democratic activities.
In summary:
- Pupils regularly have a say in what happens in our school because we have active democratic activities and conduct regular pupil surveys
- Pupils decide which charities we raise money for
- Pupils help develop and evaluate school policies and guidelines – including those on behaviour and the aims of the school – through regular pupil surveys
- Our local MP attends assemblies and explains their role as a Member of Parliament and the election process
- Pupils nominate their peers to become values champions
You can read about the democratic work of our School Parliament by clicking here.
Our school vision and aims – which underpin everything we do as a school – focus on the importance of all pupils and staff living our values, one of which is respect. Pupils are regularly involved in discussions related to what this means and how it is shown through our values lessons and assemblies. Posters around our school promote respect for others and this is reiterated through our classroom and school rules, as well as our behaviour policy and guidelines.
In summary:
- Pupils know that their behaviour affects their rights and the rights of others
- Pupils treat other people with respect
- Pupils work together to help one another
- Pupils make all visitors feel very welcome in our school
All of our pupils are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school, we educate and provide boundaries for our pupils to make choices safely, through our provision of a safe environment and empowering education.
Pupils learn about their rights and personal freedoms and are encouraged to know, understand and exercise these through, for example, our e-safeguarding provision and values lessons. Whether it is through choosing how they learn, how they record their learning during our ‘Prove it!’ sessions or their participation in our extra-curricular provision, pupils are given the freedom to make choices.
In summary:
- Pupils are able to make their own choices in school
- Pupils know that everybody has rights and responsibilities
- Pupils know that they need to work within boundaries to make safe choices
- Pupils know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms safely
- Pupils have their freedom to make choices about how they show their teachers what they have learned through our ‘Prove It!’ sessions
- Pupils have the freedom to make choices about attending our range of extra-curricular provision
- Pupils have the freedom to make choices about the level of challenge in some lessons
- Pupils have the freedom to make choices about what goes on display in their learning environment and floor books
- Pupils are able to choose from a range of meal choices as part of our provision for universal infant free school meals
This is achieved through enhancing pupils’ understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society and by giving them opportunities to experience such diversity. Pupils are involved in assemblies and discussions involving prejudices and prejudice-based bullying and learning in religious education and values lessons raises pupils’ awareness of those of different faiths and beliefs and importance of both respecting and showing tolerance towards these.
In summary:
- Pupils enjoy learning about different faiths and cultures from around the world
- We promote diversity through celebrations of different faiths and cultures
- Our pupils know that they are part of a culturally diverse society and have opportunities to experience different cultures
- Pupils understand how prejudice can lead to hate and how important it is to overcome prejudices
- Members of different faiths are welcome in our school and are encouraged to share their knowledge with us
- Pupils enjoy visiting and learning about places of worship from different faiths
- We use opportunities such as the Olympic games and World Cup to learn about different cultures