British Values
British Values at MLPS
The government set out their definition of the British values in the 2011 Prevent strategy, and they were reinforced in 2014.
The British values are:
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Democracy
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Rule of Law
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Mutual respect
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Individual Liberty
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Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.
At Marsh Lane Primary School, these values are reflected within our school mission and we reinforce them through the life of our school. At MLPS we promote the British values across the whole school. Our themed Monday assemblies reinforces these values, as does our broad curriculum. The British values are taught throughout the curriculum with a particular focus in PSHE, SMSC and RE. They are also reinforced through subjects such as history and geography.
Click here to view our Themed Monday Assembly Yearly Plan
Picture News
Picture News packs helps us to effectively explain British Values to our pupils, as we demonstrate these values in action in the real world through news topics! Each pack connects to and explains a British Value. By exploring and debating topical issues, our pupils also exercise British Values by learning to respect and tolerate the views of people around them.
Value: Democracy
How do we promote it?
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We encourage children to have a say in what happens in our school and in their local area. We have a School Council which has representatives from each class who meet regularly to discuss ways to make improvements and changes within our school. They also make decision about important events such as Red Nose Day and Children in Need.
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Our School Council recently decided that they wanted a 'Bobble Box' in the girls' toilets for those children who forgot a bobble, particularly on PE days. They wrote to a local hairdressers, who sponsored the initiative and now have this running successfully.
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We have others systems in place such as 'reading ambassadors' and 'Eco Warriors' who are voted for each yea by their classmates and whom take on responsibilities across school.
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Our Eco Warriors entered a competition where they successfully named Eckington's new recycling lorry- 'Peter Shredder'.
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We encourage children to decide which charities we would like to raise money for each year. COTs (contribution to society) encourages children to understand how to be contributing citizens and decide on their preferred charity as a class. For example, our Year 2 class recently raised money for WWF after their science work on habitats and geography work looking at deforestation. We also completed a 'Wear Pink' for Breast Cancer Awareness recently after a member of staff returned to school following their treatment.
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Democracy is also promoted through PSHE lessons and assemblies where children are taught to respect their rights and the rights of others.
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We welcome a range of external visitors throughout the year including local councillors. During our careers week a local councillor came to speak to the children about the job role and what it is involves.
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During the general election, we educated our children in an unbiased way about each party; sharing with them a child friendly version of their manifesto. We then ran our own parallel election where children were able to vote. This was ran as a ballot style with voting stations to give children a realistic experience.
Value: Rule of Law
How do we promote it?
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Whole School behaviour system with three key school rules: Ready. Respectful. Safe.
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Whole school team point system where the children are allocated a team: Brownlees (red), Jessica Ennis-Hill (yellow), Dame Sarah Storey (green), James Kirton (blue). Children collect coloured tokens; these are totalled and revealed in assembly each week. At the end of each term the winning team receives a prize.
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Local PCSO visits to school to engage in learning with the children and engage in community events such as out school fayre.
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Local PCSO assemblies on various topics such as 'electric scooters' 'online gaming' and 'vaping'.
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As part of our whole school behaviour policy we have an approach which involves 'restorative conversations'. Much of this is based on the work of Paul Dix in his book 'When the Adult Changes Everything Changes'.
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Each year, the class begins Term 1 by discussing class and school rules and the reasons for having and keeping them. An online safety agreement is also revisited and reinforced- which includes pupils and parents signing a 'home school agreement'.
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We ensure children understand laws are made in parliament and explore how these laws are made. Our Year 6 children enjoy a virtual tour of Houses of Parliament each year.
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We plan visits from authorities such as the Fire Service etc. regularly to help reinforce The Rule of Law.
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Internet Safety week carries an annual theme where the rules and safety procedures taught within the IT curriculum are reinforced and consolidated. Advice surrounding this is also shared with our parents via Class Dojo and an online safety awareness workshop is ran for our parents to attend.
Value: Mutual Respect
How do we promote it?
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Being ‘Responsible citizens’ is part of our school aim. Children learn to be respectful and polite to others.
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As part of this we try to show mutual respect within our local community. This has involved working closely with Eckington Foodbank where our harvest festival donations were taken. Our School Council have also volunteered there to give back to the community.
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We have also shown respect in the community by attending the local town parade for Remembrance Day as well as attending a V-Day party with elderly residents.
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In addition to this, we have a project running whereby each class visits 'Green Lawns Community Centre' throughout the year during their coffee afternoon to partake in numerous activities with retired residents e.g. bingo, quiz, and Christmas Carol singing.
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Our Y6 children receive 'Mini-Leader' training each year. They then use these skills to run playground activities for our younger children including Tagtiv8 and parachute games.
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We have high expectations of how children behave which is reflected in our behaviour policy.
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Children learn that their behaviour has an impact on their rights and those of others.
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We promote opportunities for children to work together with others in a class, team, group or older buddy through the use of KAGAN cooperative learning strategies.
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We warmly welcome all visitors and newly arrived children and their families.
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All members of the school community treat each other with respect.
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Links to the PSHE curriculum: Being me in my world, Celebrating Difference, Dreams and Goals, Relationships
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Celebrating and raising awareness during themed days and weeks such as 'Anti-bullying week' 'World Mental Health Day'.
Value: Individual Liberty
How do we promote it?
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We teach children to value and appreciate their individual liberty within the UK and understand this is not true for all other countries across the world.
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We encourage children to make choices at different points in the school day within a safe and supportive environment. Children make lunch option and activity choices. They have the choice of challenge in some lessons and how they record their work.
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Allowing children to understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms safely e.g. during annual whole school Safety, on line safety and anti-bullying weeks, RE lessons and PSHE lessons.
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We teach children to respect the rights of others and things through the values of empathy and tolerance, as well as understanding and knowledge.
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The theme of 'individual liberty' is embedded into our broad and balanced curriculum. This is covered explicitly in history by Y2 where children learn about changes to women's rights as well as how people can overcome a disability to achieve international success through their topic on Mary Anning and Louis Braille; and in Y5 pupils study a topic on
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In Term 2, during Black History Month, children learn about the past and the importance of freedom, the right to equality and free choice. Each class learnt about a different historic figure who have promoted this. For example, Rosa Parks.
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Worry boxes to ensure all children are listened to and understood and the use of Feeling colour monsters in EYFS for children to openly discuss how they are feeing.
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We take part in careers weekly annual which in the past has involved children having the choice to dress up as their dream job as well as having visits from numerous professionals explaining their occupations to the children and how when we are older we have a choice as to what job we undertake. This involved visits from a singer, hairdresser, gardener, cruise ship dancer and nurse as well as many others.
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The use of Picture News encourages healthy debate. Discussion and debate promotes the exploration of everyone’s experiences, feelings and opinions as well as promoting active and positive listening.
Value: Tolerance of Different Faiths and Beliefs
How do we promote it?
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We celebrate 'Black History Month' each year by studying a variety of influential people from history and modern day.
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As a predominately White British School, we have a link with an inner city Sheffield school which has a much wider multicultural
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Our themed Monday Assembly plan allows us to celebrate different faiths and religious events e.g. Holi, Ramadan.
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We have a visit each term from a local Priest who runs a Christian based assembly but through this discusses this importance of respecting and tolerating all other faiths.
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We have ran school trips to places of worship- mainly a multicultural visit to Derby whereby children visit a mosque and a synagogue.
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We ensure that we use a variety of texts exploring different faiths and religions and that the author of our class novels vary in gender, race and age.
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Marsh Lane is situated in an area which is not greatly culturally diverse. Therefore we place a great emphasis on promoting diversity with the children. Assemblies are regularly planned to promote this British value through the inclusion of stories and celebrations from a variety of faiths and cultures.
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Members of different faiths or religions are encouraged to share their knowledge to enhance learning within classes and the school. We welcome parents from different cultures and faiths to share their knowledge and experience with us in class, assemblies and special events. Recently, this involved a talk to our EYFS class about the Hindu festival Diwali from one of our parents.
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Our teaching of Religious Education where children learn about different religions, their beliefs, places of worship and festivals.
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Children learn about different societies and cultures through geography and history topics.
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We organise international days and other special days where children learn about other cultures.