British Values Statement
13 Mar 2018
KIRKBY MALZEARD CE PRIMARY SCHOOL BRITISH VALUES STATEMENT
At Kirkby School we value the diversity of all pupils, families, the wider school community and the wider world. We recognise the ever changing nature of the United Kingdom – as a multi-cultural, multi-faith community and our curriculum is designed to develop a greater understanding of the world we live in.
We do this by taking a global approach to learning, introducing themes that enable our children to learn about and develop respect for and understanding of people from other faiths and countries.
Our school reflects British values in all that we do. We aim to nurture our children on their learning journey so that they can grow into safe, considerate, democratic, responsible and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to British society and to the world. We encourage our children to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and of others in our school, our local community and the wider world.
The school takes opportunities to actively promote British Values through daily collective worship and whole school systems such as our elected pupil committees and leaders.
The Department for Education states that there is a need:
“To create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to 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”.
The Department for Education defines British Values as follows:
- Respect for democracy and support or participation in the democratic process
- Respect for the basis on which the law is made and applies in England
- Support for equality of opportunity for all
- Support and respect for the liberties of all within the law
- Respect for and tolerance of different faiths and religious and other beliefs
Prevent Duty
Schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have "due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism". This duty is known as the Prevent duty.
Our policy builds pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enables pupils to challenge extremist views. It is important to emphasise that the Prevent duty is not intended to stop pupils debating controversial issues. On the contrary, at Kirkby School we provide a safe place in which children are able to explore ideas, understand the risks associated with terrorism and develop the knowledge and skills to be able to challenge extremist arguments.
Key staff and governors have completed the training related to this duty and all staff are aware of their responsibilities which they take seriously.
At Kirkby Malzeard CE Primary School, we actively promote British values in the following ways:
Democracy:
Children are actively encouraged to have a voice and share their views and opinions regularly during lessons, collective worship and councils.
Pupil voice is valued and children are able to share their opinions on matters including the subjects and content taught, driving change and improvement. The children have opportunity as part of various councils (Collective Worship and Mental Health and Wellbeing) to work with leaders in our school and governors to make positive changes that represent the views of the children in our school.
This has included selecting charities to fundraise for that have meaning to our pupil body, creating posters directing children to support networks for their mental health alongside hosting wider community events. Governors regularly talk to our children to understand their views on the curriculum, school structure and other details to support leaders in effective self-evaluation that drives improvement.
The principle of democracy is explored in the curriculum as well as during collective worship and special days.
We democratically elect our many of our ciuncils. Pupil voice is a very important part of daily life in our school with all pupils knowing that their opinion and ideas matter.
The children have an active involvement in the selection processes of new staff.
Rule of Law:
The importance of laws, from those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout the school day, through our collective worship sessions, our PSHE curriculum and our behaviour policy.
Our PSHE curriculum has a designated strand each year ‘belonging to a community’ where children are discretely taught about the rules and behaviours that govern these and why this is important.
Children are reminded of the school rules through our 3 Bs; being respectful, being safe and being ready. These are at the heart of our vision for our pupils and life in our school.
Children also have a weekly collective worship using Picture News (https://www.picture-news.co.uk/) which introduces and discretely identifies our values link to current news stories from around the globe. This also encourages awareness and tolerance of the Protected Characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 and UN Rights of a Child (https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/).
Pupils are encouraged to respect and value the law, and are taught that they govern and protect us.
Kirkby Malzeard CE Primary enjoys visits from authorities such as the Police, Fire Service, Ambulance, etc. to help reinforce this message.
Year 6 children visit the annual Crucial Crew event run by the emergency services, aspects of right and wrong behaviours are dealt with through numerous role play scenarios.
Individual Liberty:
Within school, pupils are actively encouraged, and given the freedom to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment.
As a school we provide boundaries for our children to make choices safely, through the provision of a safe environment and planned curriculum. Pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are advised how to exercise these safely, for example through our e-Safety teaching.
Pupils are encouraged to take responsibility for their behaviour. Our pastoral support reinforces the importance of making the right choices.
Vulnerable pupils are protected and stereotypes challenged. A strong anti-bullying culture is embedded in the school and any form of unkindness is challenged and addressed.
The school also operates a robust system of logging incidents.
Pupils have key roles and responsibilities in school e.g. librarians, school council, ambassadors, sports crew, worship warriors etc. These roles are applied for; the vast majority of pupils make a choice to take on a role in school.
MUTUAL RESPECT AND TOLERANCE OF THOSE WITH DIFFERENT FAITHS AND BELIEFS
Through a strong commitment to our Christian values; Our 3Bs behaviour system reinforces that mutual respect is vital. Children are taught throughout each stage of their education that their behaviour has an effect on themselves and others. All members of the school community, supported by our behaviour policy, treat all members of the school and wider community with mutual respect.
Our PSHE curriculum has a designated strand each year ‘respecting ourselves and others’ where children are discretely taught the importance of respecting ourselves and others.
Collective Worship is based on ‘Christian Values for Life’ which are central to how we expect everyone to go about their life at our school.
Our schools are in areas which are not very culturally diverse, so the need to explore and celebrate diversity is imperative therefore, one of the golden threads of our curriculum is embracing the wider world. Our curriculum starts with the child and moves outwards to the wider world for each topic.
Being a Church of England school, through our vision and values, children are actively encouraged to embrace, respect and value difference,
Through the PSHE and RE curriculums pupils are encouraged to discuss and respect differences between people, such as differences of faith, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexuality and differences of family situations.Our RE curriculum teaches children about different faiths.
Our enrichment curriculum ia also carefully planned to support this learning.
We have recently renewed our class libraries with hiqh quality texts which reflect the diversity of society