British Values
How do we promote British Values at St Mary Queen of Martyrs VC Academy?
In June 2014, the Prime Minister emphasised the important role that British values can play in education. Further, how well a school promotes such values is an aspect of Ofsted’s inspection process.
British values are promoted in much of what we do, during school collective worship and class assemblies, Religious Education and Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) sessions. British values are also integral to our vision and school values.
As well as actively promoting British values, the opposite also applies: we would actively challenge pupils, staff or parents expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British values, including ‘extremist’ views.
The British values we adopt are not unique to Britain. We acknowledge that they differ in no way from the values of the many countries and the cultural backgrounds represented by families at St Mary Queen of Martyrs.
All staff act as role models of British values which are synonymous with the core Christian values at the heart of the school. Pupils are taught the fundamental British values through outside agencies and through class teaching and discussion. As part of the RE curriculum pupils have had regular visits to local synagogues and mosques.
Rule of Law
- We will talk about expectations/attendance and behaviours during assemblies.
- We learn about rules and behaviours to keep us safe.
- We will write and share classroom rules and rules around our school.
- We will learn about E-safety
- We will explore the roles of people who can help us
- We will learn about the importance of Rules as a whole school and in classes.
- We will explore rules and responsibilities in RE and PSHE lessons.
Tolerance & Respect
- We will learn about different religions in our Other Faiths weeks throughout the year
- We will ask children to complete pupil questionnaires
- We will share stories with children exploring moral/cultural beliefs
- We will provide the children with opportunities to attend regular worship in a range of different styles and formats.
- We will provide opportunities for children to share what they wonder about.
- We will have whole school themed days to explore similarities and differences between members of our school family and local community.
Democracy
- We will select and put in place a School Council.
- We will have the opportunity to vote for things in school.
- We will learn about the Monarchy and previous monarchies
- We will hold debates and open-ended discussions
- We will have roles and responsibilities in school both at a classroom and whole school level
- We will fundraise for charities
Individual Liberty
- We will provide opportunities for child-led learning through projects, pupil choice lessons, child-initiated learning and continuous provision
- We provide children with choices for lunches and tuck shop
- We provide children with choices for reading books/library books
- We provide children with after school club choices
- We will provide children with life skills such as cooking and ICT club
- We complete regular pupil voice questionnaires to allow children’s voices to be heard.