Promoting British Values

The Department for Education has introduced a statutory duty for schools to promote British Values more actively from September 2014, and to ensure they are taught in schools.

Coleridge Primary School committed to serving its community. It recognises the multi- cultural, multi-faith and ever-changing nature of the United Kingdom. It also understands the vital role it has in ensuring that groups or individuals within the school are not subjected to intimidation or radicalisation by those wishing to unduly, or illegally, influence them.

It follows equal opportunities guidance which guarantees that there will be no discrimination against any individual or group, regardless of faith, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, political or financial status, or similar. Coleridge Primary school is dedicated to preparing students for their adult life beyond the formal, examined curriculum and ensuring that it promotes and reinforces British values to all its students.

The government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy. The five key British Values are:

Democracy
The rule of law
Individual liberty
Mutual respect
Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

The school uses strategies within the national curriculum and beyond to secure such outcomes for students. The examples that follow show some of the many ways Coleridge Primary School seeks to instil British Values, and the impact on children’s knowledge and skills.

Democracy

Democracy is part of the day to day life within the school. It is modelled by all staff within the building who ‘show tolerance and respect for the rights of others,’ and ‘act with integrity and honesty’
Pupils have the opportunity to have their voices heard on a daily basis, with adults taking the time to listen and respond.
Pupils can also have their voices heard via the school council [voted for by the children]. P4C is a whole school approach that encourages children to think and speak without fear.
Our School Council members are democratically elected annually having shared their manifesto with the whole school and regular meetings also follow a democratic decision making process. Democracy is explained in assembly and the children are encouraged to follow the news in relation to voting, with children given opportunities to debate the issues currently being addressed.
This year, the children have contributed to the new school ‘Golden Rules’ through class contributions and subsequent School Council collaboration.
Pupil voice is high on our agenda as a school: children are consulted regularly during curriculum reviews and this informs feedback that senior leaders give to staff about the effectiveness of their teaching.

Rule of Law

As a school we have a set of Golden Rules that have been created by the children
and agreed by everyone working in the school.
The importance of Laws, rules and rights are consistently reinforced throughout regular school days, as well as when dealing with behaviour and through school assemblies.
Pupils are taught the value and reasons behind laws, that they govern and protect
us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken.
Pupils learn with restorative practices where they are given opportunity to talk openly with each other to put right what has gone wrong and learn for next time.
The school actively supports children in it being a ‘safe place to make mistakes’.
Visits from authorities such as the Police; Fire Service; Ambulance staff etc. help to reinforce this message. In Y6 pupils visit annually the police education programme (Crucial Crew), where such values are reinforced and explained.

Individual Liberty

Within school, 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 young pupils to make choices safety, through provision of a safe environment and a culture of independent learning.
Pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and advise how to exercise these safely, for example through our P4C, E- Safety and PSHE lessons.
Classrooms environments allow pupils to make active decisions about how they want to learn.
Pupils are given the freedom to make choices, whether through choice of challenge, how they record their work, or their individual participation in our numerous extra- curricular clubs and opportunities.

Mutual Respect

Respect for self and each other is a value that is at the centre of our school ethos.
Through P4C, pupils are encouraged to listen and respect the views of others.
Assemblies promote ‘respect’, and pupils have been part of discussions related to what this means and how it is shown. Golden Rules posters around the school promote respect for others and this is reiterated through our classroom and learning rules, as well as our behaviour policy.
Additional support is given to individual children to help develop self – esteem and the concept of respect.
When a child does something well their achievement is celebrated in a weekly ‘Celebration Assembly’, with parents and family invited.

Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

We value the importance of helping to shape the pupils understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society and by giving them opportunities to experience such diversity.
Our curriculum plans include celebrating festivals around the world such as Chinese New Year, Diwali and Harvest.
We follow the Rotherham agreed R.E. curriculum in order to meet the diverse needs of the pupils
We use assemblies to explore and understand the similarities between religions. Assemblies and discussions involving prejudices and prejudice based bullying are also regularly held.
Curriculum topics include learning about and, most importantly, from other faiths and misconceptions between religions are addressed as well as prejudices that have been expressed by the community. This happens particularly through our SMSC, P4C and PSHE lessons.