Fundamental British Values
British Values
British Values are embedded in the life of our school through our distinctive Christian character and demonstrated through our core values of Courage, Compassion, Respect, and Resilience. They are actively promoted through spiritual moral, social and cultural education and reinforced as part of our high quality teaching across the curriculum, through our collective worship and a positive behaviour policy that allows pupils to develop and demonstrate skills and attributes that will equip them to contribute positively to life in modern Britain. These values and attributes are promoted and reinforced by all staff within school and used to provide a model of behaviour for all of our pupils. The way in which our school community behaves and treats each other is built upon a basis of respect, understanding of our own worth and the worth of others as well as Christian love, whilst recognising that many of these guiding principles are also present in other faiths and cultures.
British Values should allow pupils to:
To understand right from wrong and to develop and understanding of the civil and criminal law in our country.
To enable pupils to take responsibility for their own actions and play an active, positive part in their communities, and through this, society in a wider way.
To enable pupils to gain an understanding and respect for public institutions in our country.
To understand the importance of tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling pupils to understand and appreciate their own cultures and traditions.
To demonstrate respect for others.
To encourage respect for democracy and an understanding of how this process works in this country.
Democracy
We believe democracy is a fundamental value that pupils need to explore in order to gain an understanding that every individual has opinions and a voice. Pupils are listened to by adults and taught to listen carefully and with concern to each other. We believe there is value in every opinion shared and teach beyond simple voting and instead explore the complexities of aspects such as silent voting, the right to vote and listening to what candidates stand for and embody, not just the surface level.
The Rule of law
The importance of laws, whether they are those that govern our classes, our schools or the country are consistently reinforced. Our core values are reflected in children's everyday routines. Through our PSHE, RE and SEL Curriculum, children take part in acknowledging the rules of law, specifically within their environment including reflecting and identifying how to make amends. They are also taught that laws are there to protect us. This is also covered in our E-safety units.
Individual Liberty
As a federation, we educate and provide boundaries for our pupils to make choices within a safe and supportive environment. On a daily basis, our pupils are encouraged to exercise their rights and personal freedoms and our positive and restorative approach to behaviour enables this. We actively support our pupils to recognise and understand what these rights and freedoms are through our PSHCE curriculum. Our collective worship, safer internet use, challenge in maths, how they work in groups and sometimes choosing how they record their work provide regular opportunities for children to exercise their individual liberty.
Mutual Respect
Our value of respect is central to our school ethos and can be seen in all our interactions within the federation community. We focus on both respect for each other and our environment. We build relationships as a foundation to guide children to be able to act in all situations with respect. We emphasise the right and responsibility of every child to learn. This is supported by recognising and celebrating children who show respect, as guided by our behaviour policy and 'No Outsiders' approach.
Tolerance of Those with different faiths and beliefs.
We want our pupils to gain an understanding of our diverse society and their place within it. We teach about important events across a range of cultures and religions from Ramadan to Yom Kippur so that all pupils understand the importance of understanding faiths and the place they have within our communities in which we live. The Wye Forest Federation enhances pupils’ understanding of different faiths and beliefs through religious education studies, P.S.H.E, collective worships and social and emotional learning. We encourage children to value all cultures and religions and offer opportunities to experience these through visits to other places of worship, visitors and our No Outsiders status.