Ringsfield Church of England Primary School

  Courageous Advocacy at Ringsfield Primary School

At Ringsfield Primary school we understand that life can be challenging at times and that all people, including friends, family and global citizens will face difficulties that they need to persevere with in order to overcome them. We aim to inspire courageous advocacy and instill our Christian Values in the whole school community.

Our Christian values are promoted half termly through our values for life focus and there is time for reflection during collective worship so the children can add to the reflection board and demonstrate their understanding. We also carefully plan opportunities in our curriculum to ensure that the children regularly discuss and debate the big issues, to challenge injustice and to engage in activities that can bring about change.  

We teach our children that it is important to help others when we can, no matter who they are, where they come from or what challenges they may face. This is delivered through the teachings of the bible and by learning about other courageous advocates and current world issues. We believe it is important for our children to appreciate their role as part of a community and the wider world. We encourage them to want to take responsibility for themselves and to gain an understanding of their importance, impact and influence in the world. 

The children attend a collective worship once a week led by the Courageous Advocacy and British Values leader. These worship times provide opportunities to explore current global, national and local issues and focus on special celebration days or awareness weeks such as World Braille Day, Internet Safety Week and Black History Month.

We are courageous advocates!

We have a courageous advocacy group led by children across the year groups. This allows the children to take part in discussions, carry out research and make final decisions about causes they would like to support. 

We are working towards finding a cause we would like to champion, to then make a difference.

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.

This display shows how we embed the British Values in our school and on this particular week how we felt about what was happening in the wider community. The question was;

How important is it for us to know the weather forecast?

Some of the responses included;

The focus was Individual Liberty and the importance of listening to advice and warnings to keep us safe.

Other collective worships in the week include a forum, singing with Reverand Phil and sharing assembly. 

The forum allows time to consider 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 collective worships with the parents are a celebration of the children's positive attitudes towards their learning and the wonderful work they produce. Mutual respects is a key value but again all of the values apply.

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          Courageous Advocacy

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.