In November 2014, the Department for Education published guidance on the promotion of British values in the school curriculum. Promotion of these core, human values has always been a central focus of our work with the children at Creswell C of E Infant and Nursery School. The promotion of British values is firmly established in our curricular and extra-curricular programmes as well as being embedded in our ethos and culture.
Democracy
The principles of democracy are promoted through many school activities. When children are allocated roles and responsibilities within school, delegation is conducted democratically and fairly. The children are involved in age-appropriate decision making processes in school which shows democracy in action. Pupil voice is heard by class teachers and other staff regularly seeking the children's views on a variety of issues. The children's views influence genuine change within the school.
The Rule of Law
The importance of rules, within school, home and wider community, is consistently reinforced in our day-to-day school activities. The children are helped to understand the value of and reasons for the rules which keep us happy and protected, the responsibilities associated with them and the consequences when they are broken. Rules are regularly explored through many of our curriculr programmes, especially in Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (PSHE), Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) and Religious Education (RE), many topics across all curriculum areas reinforce specific rules e.g. health and safety rules in cookery and design and technology sessions etc. Restorative approaches are used to support a positive learning environment where pupils are helped to self-regulate their own behaviour and learning. Many visitors are welcomed to school to discuss their work and how they help maintain good order in the wider community e.g. police offers, fire officers and railway workers.
Individual Liberty
From the very start within our school, the children 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 the children to enable them to make safe choices, through the provision of a safe environment and an empowering education. The children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and consider how to exercise these safely, for example through our Online safety work, PSHE Education, RE programmes and RSE lessons. Our numerouse extra-curricular clubs and opportunities give the children the freedom to choose participation and challenge.
Mutual Respect
One of the strands of our 'Rainbow' mission statement is 'Respect each other' and the children learn about this during a weekly values collective worship session and through our daily reward system, ClassDojo. Our Relationship and Behaviour Policy, which highlights our expected conduct behaviours, is based on respect for each other in a mutually supportive learning environment. Other policies such as Anti-Bullying and Equality and Diversity all reinforce the principles of mutual respect which are at the heart of our school. We actively tackle all types of bullying and discriminatroy language, including online bullying and prejudice based bullying related to special educational need, disability, gender, gender reassignment, race, religion and belief, or secual orientation. Our children are helped throughout each and every day to know and understand that it is expected and imperative that respect is shown to everyone, whatever differences we may have. The children learn that their behaviour choices have an effect on their own rights and those of others. All members of the school community should treat each other with respect. Our day to day procedures, classroom expectations, social interactions and professional relationship are all based on a clear expectation that mutual respect is at the heart of our organisation.
Tolerance
We enhance the children's understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society and promote tolerance of different beliefs by giving them opportunities to appreciate diversity. Through our Religious Education and Geography and History curriculums, the children develop an understanding of a variety of cultures and beliefs. Collective worship sessions on themes such as anti-bullying, black history and religious festivals ensure that the children are encouraged to tolerate and embrace difference. Our Relationship and Behaviour Policy and Anti-Bullying Policy ensure that prejudice related incidents are challenged, resolved, recorded and reported to Governors. We use a range of resources and approaches to learn about different faiths and beliefs. we fully follow the locally agreed syllabus for Religious Education. This outlines the contributions that RE makes to the whole curriculum, including pupils' Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC).
It should be noted that whilst tolerance is actively promoted, we would actively challenge pupils, staff, parents or governors expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British values, including 'extremist' or radical views, as detailed in our Prevent Duty Policy which can be found in the Key Information / Policies section of our website.