ST.NICHOLAS CE PRIMARY SCHOOL BRITISH VALUES STATEMENT
’Where everyone is valued’’
At St. Nicholas School we value the diversity of all pupils, families and the wider school community. We recognise the ever changing nature of the United Kingdom – as a multi-cultural, multi-faith community and our curriculum is designed to develop a greater understanding of the world we live in. We do this by taking a global approach to learning, introducing themes that enable our children to learn about and develop respect for and understanding of people from other faiths and countries. We achieve this by combining the ‘Christian Values’ of our school- Love, Peace, Kindness & Patience, along with the characteristics of Resilience, Ambition & Possibilities, Life Skills & Enterprise, Knowledge & Understanding of the World and Personal, Social & Emotional awareness. Our school reflects British values in all that we do. We aim to nurture our children on their learning journey so that they can grow into safe, considerate, democratic, responsible and tolerant adults who make a positive difference to British society and to the world. We encourage our children to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and of others in our school, our local community and the wider world. The school takes opportunities to actively promote British Values through daily collective worship and whole school systems such as our elected pupil committees and leaders.
The Department for Education states that there is a need:
“To create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs”.
The Department for Education defines British Values as follows:
- Respect for democracy and support or participation in the democratic process Respect for the basis on which the law is made and applies in England
- Support for equality of opportunity for all
- Support and respect for the liberties of all within the law
- Respect for and tolerance of different faiths and religious and other beliefs
Prevent Duty
Schools are subject to a duty under section 26 of the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, in the exercise of their functions, to have "due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism". This duty is known as the Prevent duty.
Our policy builds pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enables pupils to challenge extremist views. It is important to emphasise that the Prevent duty is not intended to stop pupils debating controversial issues. On the contrary, at St. Nicholas School we provide a safe place in which children are able to explore ideas, understand the risks associated with terrorism and develop the knowledge and skills to be able to challenge extremist arguments.
Key staff and governors have completed the training related to this duty and all staff are aware of their responsibilities which they take seriously.
At St Nicholas CE Primary School, we actively promote British values in the following ways:
Democracy:
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- All children are encouraged to debate topics of interest, express their views and make a meaningful contribution to the running of the school on matters that directly involve pupils. Children also have the opportunity to have their voices heard through pupil questionnaires and pupil surveys.
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- The principle of democracy is explored in the curriculum as well as during collective worship and special days.