British Values

British Values statement

Our children will become the citizens and leaders that make up future generations of our country. We expect them to understand the role they will play in society, both to further themselves and their communities.

Schools are required to provide for the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of their children. As part of this requirement, we are expected to actively promote fundamental British values.

Our school’s own ethos already embodies certain values that are similar to the government’s British values. For example, one of our key values is respect and we strongly encourage children to respect, not only themselves and our school, but also the wider community in which they live. Promoting British values will reinforce, not change, our Christian ethos.

The government defines British values as:

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

These values are reflected in our school’s Christian values, including in policies, collective worships and classroom displays.

At St. Andrew’s, democracy is modelled through our Pupil Task Force, made up of representatives of every class in school, chaired by our Head Boy and Girl. Our democratically-elected House Captains also represent their respective houses throughout the academic year in various ways.

Children also engage with the values through our curriculum, in ways which are suitable for their age and context. For example, we use our multi-faith week to introduce our children to other world faiths life Islam and Hinduism. We encourage our children to have an altruistic view of the world in which they live, putting others before themselves. Staff also challenge prejudiced or extreme opinions and behaviour as part of their Prevent training.

The curriculum provides lots of opportunities to look at fundamental British values. Your child will already have some experience of this in lessons such as religious education (RE) and personal, social and health education (PSHE). In each subject, teachers will look out for these opportunities and encourage children to think about how the values link into the topics they are studying.

Discrimination or any other form of prejudiced or extremist behaviour, either from children, parents or staff, will not be tolerated by St. Andrew’s School.

Our duty to actively promote fundamental British values means we always present political views in a balanced manner and don’t actively promote party-politics to the children.