British Values at Ringsfield Primary School
In line with the Department for Education's five part definition, we promote the following British Values at our school;
Democracy The Rule of Law Indiviual Liberty Mutual Respect Tolerance of Those with Different Faiths and Beliefs
The children and staff will encounter these principles throughout everyday school life. These values are explicitly taught through spiritual, moral, social and cultural but also in a range of other ways including weekly assemblies, Re lessons and PSHE sessions. British Values are also interwoven into our skills based curriculum so the children have meaniful contexts to explore the values.
We believe that the active promotion of British Values will enable the children to develop a real sense of community and begin to develop their understanding of their roles and responsibilities within it.
The children are given opportunities to apply their understanding of British Values through whole school approaches such as the school council and the ethos commity.
Whole School Assemblies
The children attend an assembly once a week led by the British Values leader. These assemblies focus on the importance of British Values within our school setting and the wider community. The children are exposed to lots of current events to give them meaningful contexts to discuss and then offer their ideas and opinions.
Examples of this include;
BREXIT
The Australian Forest Fires
The British Flooding
As well as discussing these events as a whole school they also have the opportunity to record their thoughts to share with the whole school community. Example of these are added to the British Values display.
.jpg?width=1920&height=1080&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "IMG_9596(1)")
This display shows how we embed the British Values in our school and on this particular week how we feel about what is happening in the wider community. The question was;
How important is it for us to know the weather forecast?
Some of the responses included;
.jpg?width=320&height=240&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "Flooding 1(1)")
This value represents individual liberty and focused on the importance of listening to advice and warnings to keep us safe.
Other Assemblies
Other focus assemblies in the week include a forum and sharing assembly.
Forum assemblies allow for lots of ideas and opinions regarding school life. Focuses have been 'how to make playtimes better, E-Safety discussions and how to raise money for charities such as Children in Need'. There is a real focus on democracy and all of the other values are very much present.
Sharing assemblies are a celebration of the children's positive attitudes towards their learning and the wonderful work they produce. Mutual respects is a key focus in these assemblies but again all of them apply.
Commitees
We have many commities within our school community which promotes democracy and all of the school community plays are part in;
Ethos Commitee Eco Commitee Digital Leaders Junior Road Safety Sports Commitee
Cultural Diversity
We have also had a focus in school about the importance of respecting others and understanding that everyone is different as individuals. Having a strong self-identity is encouraged and showing tolerance of others is vital.
We have used different books to support the children to develop their understanding of this.
.jpg?width=320&height=240&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "dogs dont do ballet(1)")
Black History Month
We have been learning about people who have made positive contributions to the world. As a school we have taken the time to do research into the backgrounds or find out more about black people who have made a difference to the UK.
We decided to find out about the important people Mary Seacole, Rosa Parks and Mo Farah.
The children took part in dicussions about the contributions these people have made and how they have helped shape and influence society. We thought about how we can see the British Values in each of their achievements.
.jpg?width=320&height=240&scale=LIMIT_MAXSIZE "IMG_2100(3)")
Children who helped change the World
We have spent time thinking about very special children who have made or are making contributions to the world and who have changed the lives of many people.
We focused on Louis Braille, Malala Yousafzai and Greta Thunberg.
We thought about the personal traits needed to achieve their goals and whether society responds to the views and passions of children in the same way they do adults.
These 3 special individuals led us to have purposeful discussions about our British Values.
Different Families, Same Love
We have focused on and been discussing the meaning of love and how it does not all look the same. The children offered some thoughtful responses and demonstrated how the British Values support their understanding.
We read some books together to support our discussions.
Mental Health
We have spent time exploring mental health and how we must consider it as just as important as our physical health.
The focus was understanding the difference between small feelings and big feelings and how they are managed through talk and listening. We also thought about how we are all individuals and that we respond to things differently.
'Talking Mental Health animation and teacher toolkit' supported our learning.
This was a valuable focus for the whole school community considering the experiences we have all had during the Covid pandemic and the upcoming school transitions. We were really proud of all of the thoughtful discussions between the children and adults.
