Promoting British Values

Our promotion of British Values in school

At St George’s, we value and celebrate the diverse heritages of everybody.  Alongside this, we value and celebrate being part of Britain. In general terms, this means that we celebrate traditions, religious celebrations from the Christian Calendar and customs in the course of the year; for example, Harvest Festival during the autumn term and Christmas celebrations.  We also value and celebrate national events, e.g. The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Furthermore, children learn about being part of Britain from different perspectives. They learn where Britain is in relation to the rest of Europe and other countries in the world and about significant events in British history such as ‘The Gunpowder plot’ and key historical figures.

We agree with the Department for Education’s five-part definition of British values:

• Democracy
• The rule of law
• Individual liberty
• Mutual respect
• Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

Democracy

At St George’s, children have the opportunity for their voice to be heard through our school council which meets regularly to discuss issues raised within the school.  They are elected by their class peers and are involved in making the school a better place to learn. There is an agenda, issues are discussed and minutes taken.  The council is able to genuinely affect change within the school and gives our children a better understanding of democracy. They are involved in the interview process for new staff.  In addition, all children, staff, parents and stakeholders were invited to contribute to  the creation of our new school vision and the new colour for our school polo shirts.

The Rule of Law

At St Georges we promote the rule of law by:-

• Having a clear, consistent behaviour (based upon positive rewards) which is consistently applied throughout the school.
• Providing opportunities for children to reflect about positive and negative behaviour.
• Road Safety and awareness is taught throughout the curriculum
• Developing links with our Police Community Support Officer.
• Addressing issues of law during whole-school assemblies as and when appropriate.
• Encouraging visits from external agencies to talk to the children in school.
• Using our reward system to acknowledge good behaviour as well as good academic work.

 Individual Liberty

Alongside rules and laws, we promote freedom of choice and the right to respectfully express views and beliefs. 

• Pupils are actively encouraged to make choices at our school, knowing that they are within a safe and supportive environment.
• 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 and PHSE lessons.
• Children are encouraged to understand responsibility in school in terms of behaviour and attitude to learning.
• Home / school agreements for all pupils are in place.
• Pupils are taught how to be safe and how to act safely. This is given an additional emphasis during anti-bullying week.

Mutual respect

Mutual respect is at the core of our school life. An element of our school ethos is  to reach out to God and to each other. Children learn that their behaviours have an effect on their own rights and those of others.  All members of the school community are taught to treat each other with respect.

Our children learn respect through:

• The promotion of positive relationships.
• The modelling of positive relationships by all adults working in school.
• All aspects of the curriculum, in particular the R.E and Personal, Social and Health Education curriculum (as successfully working in groups requires respect for each other).
• The work of the school council.
• The positive reward system developed to promote respect.
• Our celebration assemblies when all pupils show respect for the efforts of others.
• Participation in events organised to raise money for various charities which are chosen and voted on by the school council. E.g. Supporting comic relief, Birmingham Children’s Hospital Phab Camps and local charities. Also, all lost property is eventually given to the Huda Centre Mosque where they can raise funds through recycling.
• Learning to live with their peers on educational residential visits.

Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

We put a large emphasis on promoting diversity as we are a wide, diverse and caring community.

Tolerance is promoted in our school through:

• Our stated aims and values.
• Assemblies which are regularly planned to include stories and celebrations from a variety of faiths and cultures. E.g. Diwali, Easter, Ramadan and Eid.
• Our RE, PSHE and MFL curriculum.
• Educational visits to places of religious worship within the major religions of the school.
• The school’s equal opportunities policy.
• Members of different faiths or religions are invited to share their knowledge of their culture and beliefs with the children. We work with Faith and Belief Forum to develop understanding of self and others through years 4, 5 & 6
• Using world events as opportunities to positively reinforce life and culture in other countries (football world cup, the Olympics, etc.).

We believe that tolerance is gained through knowledge and understanding. Through our curriculum and the routines of our daily school life, we strive to demonstrate tolerance and help children to become knowledgeable and understanding citizens. We believe tolerance to be too small an understanding of how we live together through mutual respect.

As well as actively promoting British Values, the opposite applies; we would actively challenge pupils, staff or parents expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British Values, including ‘extremist’ views.