British Values

At Primrose, we pride ourselves on promoting and developing the British Values, throughout our centre, with our curriculum offer, assemblies and enrichment days. We aim to ensure the children become valuable members of society who treat others with respect and leave our centre, better prepared to engage in life in modern Britain. We develop the British Values on a daily basis through conversations, weekly assemblies and through linking our teaching to the values: Individual Liberty, Rule of Law, Democracy, Mutual Respect and Tolerance.

The promotion of British Values ensures our children have:

• an appreciation of how citizens can influence the decision-making through democratic procedures
• an appreciation for living in a country that promotes rule of law which protects individual citizens and is essential for well-being and safety
• an understanding that the rule of law can hold citizens to account through the justice and court system
• an understanding that public bodies such as the police and army can also be held to account, through parliament
• an understanding that they have the freedom to choose a faith or belief that is protected by law
• an acceptance that other people may have different faiths or belief to their own and this is to be tolerated without prejudice or discriminatory behaviour
• an understanding of the importance of identifying and combatting discrimination

Each half term, our curriculum has a British Value focus. These are shared and embedded through our assemblies, Personal and Social Development (PSD) lessons, Religious Education (RE) and through our daily conversations. We may, at times, have outside agencies (the police, Brook etc) or other visitors join us at the centre, to reinforce and further embed these values.

The British Values are very important to us and underpin a lot of the work we do. Whilst at Primrose, children will be expected to demonstrate a tolerance of others. They will learn and try to abide by a set of rules. They will further learn some of the laws of Britain, in order to keep themselves and others safe. During their time here, children will be encouraged to positively express themselves and safely explore their individual liberty. In doing that, they gain a mutual respect across their peers and others. They will leave Primrose with an understanding of democracy, that will set them up for life after Primrose and beyond.

Individual Liberty:

Pupils are actively encouraged to make good choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school, we educate and provide boundaries for all pupils to make choices safely, thus empowering them to approach their education with positivity independence. Pupils are encouraged to know and exercise their rights, including the UN Rights of the Child. They are taught about their personal freedoms and are advised how to exercise these safely through PSD and e-safety. We encourage our children that their choices are important and impactful and that their voice is important and heard. We will highlight and discuss news that affects our children (in an age-appropriate manner). The children are encouraged to make choices about their lunchtime groups and are involved in feedback and pupil voice at points, throughout the year.

Democracy:

As we build and promote children’s rights and the importance of having their voice heard effectively and safely, the children learn about being a citizen in Britain. It is important they learn that fundamentally, democracy ensures they will always have a choice and that sometimes having a ‘vote’ doesn’t always mean they will get their first choice- this is an important skill to learn and appreciate, and sets them up positively for adulthood. Children are encouraged to vote for class novels (you may not always get the one you want) and through pupil voice, we further reinforce that their voices are important to us. Children are encouraged to provide ideas for prizes which they can earn through our Dojo point system- rewarding good choices and positive behaviour. We delve into weekly news and issues impacting the children locally and nationally, including at government level.

Rule of Law:

We educate our children to be positively impactful citizens in their local community and the wider world. They gain awareness of some of the laws which directly involve themselves and learn about the age of criminal responsibility, and the impact of this, on themselves. It is important to us that our children learn, “The only behaviour you can control is your own,” and that what they do now, could impact what happens next- cause and effect. Rule of Law enables children to gain an appreciation that their actions impact their society (as small as their class group to as large as their local area and the wider world) and that a community that works well together and protects its members, benefits greatly. We have high expectations of our children and we hold them to account.

Mutual Respect and Tolerance:

We teach our children to respect each other and to take ownership and accountability, when this doesn’t happen. Treat others, how you wish to be treated. Through RE, we look at religions and cultures across our local community and in our school. We hold Awareness Days to build an understanding of those that may be different to us. At all times, our children are expected to show respect and are treated respectfully. There is no tolerance for discrimination of any kind including but not limited to: race, religion, disability or gender.

Whilst we have half-termly themes and/or focus days, children are encouraged to demonstrate these values, daily and throughout the year.