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Promoting British Values

The DFE have recently reinforced the 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.”

In Brookland Infant School, we reinforce these values in the following ways:

Democracy

Pupils have the opportunity to have their voices heard and to share their opinions through our school council and through pupil questionnaires. A school council representative is elected from each class and at the meetings takes forward ideas from his/her classmates and feeds back to the class after meetings. In lesson observations, pupil opinion is sought to feed into the monitoring systems of the school. Children have the opportunity of responding on the feedback sheet that goes home with school reports. We think of our school as a listening school where pupil voice is very much valued.

The Rule of Law

Every group or organisation needs rules to guide the way in which people behave whether that be within a family, a class or school group, a club or a country. We have seven generic school rules which are established throughout the school. These are then detailed more with shared class rules that the class negotiate with the teacher and children agree to in class. Pupils are taught that the rules are there to protect us and others and that we all have rights but also we have responsibility to live by the rules that are in place. Our behaviour policy underpins our school ethos and our rules are reinforced regularly throughout each school day.

Individual Liberty

In our school pupils are actively encouraged to make independent choices in their learning and in their behaviour. In school we provide boundaries for safe choices, for example through teaching e-safety and personal safety in PSHE. Children are encouraged and taught to make responsible choices whether this be through the choice of a learning challenge, how they record, participation in clubs or in their behaviour.

Mutual respect

Our behaviour policy is built on a framework of rights, rules and responsibility within a culture of relationships built on mutual respect. Adults role model positive relationships based on respect at all times and children are encouraged and taught to have respect for others through everyday conversations and through assemblies and PSHE lessons. Posters around the school promote a respectful ethos and this is reiterated through classroom and learning rules and expectations.

Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

Tolerance of others is achieved by helping pupils to build an understanding of other people and that it is ok to be different. We teach this through incidental opportunities and by valuing difference within our school. We use assemblies, RE and PSHE lessons to support this. We encourage members of different faith groups to share their knowledge to enhance learning within classes and year groups. We aim to have diverse images around the school and use dual language labels in classrooms to value pupils from a variety of backgrounds and cultures.