British Values
At Mill View Primary School we value and celebrate the unique contribution which every member our school community brings.
British Values at Mill View Primary School
At Mill View Primary School, we uphold and teach pupils about British Values which are defined as:
- democracy
- rule of law
- individual liberty
- mutual respect
- tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs.
These values are taught explicitly through Personal, Social, Health and Emotional (PSHE), and Religious Education (RE). We also teach British Values by planning and delivering a broad and balanced curriculum. For example, in our English lessons staff carefully select texts that cover a range of themes to promote tolerance, mutual respect and democracy and in History we analyse events where British values have been tested such as both World Wars. In geography, pupils could look at how different cultures live and work throughout the world and how that compares to their own lives.
We are a 'No Outsiders' school and as a staff have thought carefully as to how and when we can weave resources, books and themes through learning so that children understand that the personal rights and freedoms of others are not stand alone themes that we learn about on timetabled days, but are instead part of our each and every day and relate to our own community.
The school takes opportunities to actively promote British Values through collective worship and whole school systems and structures such as electing and running our own Pupil Parliament. Each person in our community plays their own part and children are all given a designated role in their classroom to develop their sense of belonging and responsibility.
We actively promote British values through ensuring that our curriculum planning and delivery includes real opportunities for exploring these values.
At Mill View Primary School, these values are reinforced regularly and in the following ways:
Democracy:
Democracy is an important value at our school. Pupils have the opportunity to have their voices heard through the Pupil Parliament. They also vote informally throughout the school year on a range of matters and know that their voices will be heard.
The Rule of Law:
The importance of laws and rules, whether they are those that govern the class, the school or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout the school day.
Pupils are taught the value and reasons behind laws that govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken. Visits from outside authorities such as the police and the fire service are regular parts of our school calendar and help reinforce this message.
Our conscious disipline approach to behaviour management is designed to offer a structure within which children can develop effective skills of self-discipline.
We acknowledge all the efforts and achievements of children, both in and out of school. Each class have appointed Kindness Monitors whose job it is to record and share with the class kind and helpful acts they have noticed. Each week we nominate at least 2 children from each class to receive a ‘Praise Postcard’ during our Friday Celebration Assembly.
As a staff we have made the decision not to give out stickers and certificates as a normal everyday strategy to manage behaviour. Rather children will be encouraged to recognise the positive effect their good behaviour has on themselves and others thus helping them to develop self-motivation. We recognise that on rare occasions children who are struggling to develop good behaviour patterns may need a short term series of goals and rewards to help them develop their self-discipline skills. These will be developed in consultation with the Senior Managers, Learning Mentor, SENCO and Lead Behaviour Professional.
Individual Liberty:
Pupils are actively encouraged to make choices at our school, 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 given the freedom to make choices, e.g. signing up for extra-curricular clubs.
Mutual Respect:
Our 'characteristics of effective learning' - Communication, Confidence, Collaboration, Determination, Creativity, Independence & Curiosity along with our Together Everyone Acheives More approach underpin our school ethos and well established behaviour management system. We believe that by developing and building on these skills our children will have the strength and compassion to respect the views of the others as well as share their own well beyond there time here with us.
Links with those of different Faiths and Beliefs:
This is achieved through enhancing pupils’ understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society and by giving them opportunities to experience such diversity in our local community. Collective Worship and discussions involving prejudices and prejudice-based bullying have been followed and supported by learning in RE and PSHE. We will be introducing an annual Faith Celebration Week where we study other world faiths and learn about their customs, practises and celebrations.