Promoting British Values

At Haydn, high expectations and an educational intention that centres on achieving the best possible outcomes for all children is at the heart of what we do so that learners are safe, happy, confident, secure and able to engage with the wider community. Our children develop strong characteristics for learning; Resilience, Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Reflectiveness, Readiness and in accordance with The Department for Education, we aim to actively promote British Values to ensure young people leave our school well prepared to live life in Modern Britain. At Haydn, the British Values are promoted through our curriculum; they are a central part of teaching and learning visible in our policies and in our weekly assemblies. As a school, we value and celebrate the diverse heritages of everybody at Haydn.

The Key Values Are

• Democracy
• Rule of Law
• Individual Liberty
• Mutual Respect
• Tolerance for those of different faiths and religions

Through our provision we aim to enable our children to;

• develop self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence;
• distinguish right from wrong and to respect the law of England
• acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public institutions and services in England;
• acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures to further tolerance and harmony between different cultural tradtions;
• accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and to understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality of the school and to society more widely;
• show respect for other people;
• Show respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic process

As a result of promoting British values the list below describes the understanding and knowledge we expect our children to develop;

• an understanding of and appreciation that living under the rule of law protects individual citizens and is essential for their wellbeing and safety;
• an understanding that freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law;
• an acceptance that other people having different faiths or beliefs (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated and should not be the cause of prejudiced or discriminatory behaviour
• an understanding of the importance of identifying and combatting discrimination;
• that citizens can influence decision making through the democratic process.

At Haydn these values are reinforced regularly both through the curriculum and in the following ways:

Democracy

We actively encourage democracy at Haydn and our children have many opportunites for their voices to be heard. For example we have a successful school council which meets regularly to discuss how to improve the school. Council members for each year group are voted in by their class. The Council is able to genuinely effect change within the school. The relevance and importance of laws, those that are set to govern our classrooms, the school or indeed our country are consistently reinforced within school.

Our Behaviour policy

This teaches boundaries, recognises pupils fulfilling expectation, rewards those who go above and beyond, and supports our children to improve if they do not live up to the expectation. We believe in a system that ensures all children are listened to, conflicts are resolved peacefully and have a clear understanding of why their behaviour was inappropriate and how they could manage it differently in the future. We promote mutual respect at all times.

The Rule of Law

Our children follow school rules which are integral to our learning and ethos every day

• School rules and expectations are clear, fair and regularly promoted.
• Pupils are always helped to distinguish right from wrong, in the classroom, during assemblies and on the playground
• Pupils are regularly reminded about their ‘Rights and Responsibilities’ and about how these are linked
• Pupils are encouraged to respect the law and we enjoy visits from authorities such as the Police to help reinforce this message
• Our behaviour policy states a zero-tolerance baseline for any form of aggression, abuse, sexual harassment or violence, which extends to pupils, staff and parents/carers
• The children undertake lessons on drugs, alcohol, smoking, crime and gangs, radicalisation and homophobia and the laws surrounding these areas (age and stage appropriate).  

The importance of laws, whether they are those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout regular school days as well as when dealing with behaviour and through school assemblies. Children are taught the value and reasons behind laws, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken.

Individual Liberty

At Haydn, pupils are actively encouraged to make independent choices knowing that they are in a safe, secure and supportive environment. As a school we educate and provide boundaries for children to make choices safely, through the provision of a safe environment and an empowering education. Children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and advised how to exercise these safely, for example through our E-Safety and PSHE lessons. Whether it be through choice of learning challenge, of how they record, of participation in our numerous extra-curricular clubs and opportunities, pupils are given the freedom to make choices.

Mutual Respect

Respect is at the core of our school ethos and is modelled by pupils and staff alike. The school promotes respect for others and this is reiterated through our classroom and learning environments. We foster an environment where students are safe to disagree with each other. Mutual respect is embraced throughout the curriculum for example we teach the concept of ‘fair play’ in PE and games.

Tolerance of those of Different Faiths and Beliefs

As a school situated in a diverse community and city, Haydn Primary is committed to celebrating different beliefs and faiths. Our RE curriculum, together with a range of off site visits  provides a broad and balanced education on a range of faiths, religions and cultures.