British Values

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

Our school reflects British values in all that we do.  We aim to nurture our children on their journey through life so they can grow into safe, caring, 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. 

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Explicit and Implicit teaching

We have an excellent programme of study, which supports our pupils in learning about the key values from Reception to Year 6. Children engage in challenging, reflective and exciting activities in formal lessons with their class teacher. This teaching forms part of the core curriculum for each year group. More details can be found on your child’s year group page under ‘curriculum maps.’

The values are also taught explicitly in weekly, whole school assemblies alongside our PSHE programmes of study and through our 'picture news' assemblies. The themes and current affairs give pupils opportunities to listen, absorb and reflect and share opinions on on our British Values as a community.

We help our pupils to remember the British Values through the thumb and finger model:

Thumb – Democracy – up or down to give opinion.

Index finger – Rule of Law – pointing

Middle finger – Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs – tallest finger pointing to God.

Ring Finger – Mutual respect – wedding ring – respect for other people

Little finger – Individual Liberty – sticks out on its own.

Here are some examples of how we ‘live’ and promote British Values at Newcroft:

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Democracy

Job Centre- pupils can apply for jobs termly across the school which promotes how to live and work in unity.

School Council- pupils in each class vote and elect 2 new school councilors each term, who work alongside our teacher leader. The council vote on events and activities and support the school in running events such as Macmillan Coffee morning. The school council meets regularly to discuss issues raised by their fellow class mates and to decide on ways to improve our school.  The members are genuinely able to effect change within the school. They choose the charities which the school supports and help to decide and run fundraising activities.

School Development- The children are consulted on their ideas for the School Development Plan and their suggestions will form part of the key actions conducted by relevant staff. Staff hold 'my subject' assemblies where pupils share their ideas about how they feel about how and what is taught and how it could be improved. 

Ambassadors- our Year 6 ambassadors are elected by pupils and teaching staff. They are our student body representatives at important events.

Surveys- staff, pupil and parent surveys are important to us. We promote ‘having your voice heard’ at Newcroft. Our children vote for changes they want to see- our latest vote allowed the pupils to choose their new reward for winning the half termly house cup!

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The Rule of Law

Pride in our school- Pupils’ pride in the school is shown by their excellent conduct, manners and punctuality. This is evidenced by lesson and general observations in and out of school as well as discussions with pupils and feedback from visitors and places we visit. Through working closely with our parents and governors, and by all staff having consistently high expectations of behaviour and learning, we have embedded our school values and created a culture of belonging and pride.

Shared rules- each class writes, agrees and signs a list of ‘rules of conduct’ at the beginning of the new academic year.

Rainbow Rules- all our pupils know and understand our foundation ‘rainbow rules’ and understand why, through explicit teaching, that rules are important to live by. Children understand why there are consequence when laws are broken. We always try to help pupils understand this by giving them opportunities to decide upon their own consequences if they make the wrong choice.

Keeping Safe- Children know and understand our anti bulling and E Safety rules. They learn through these curriculum areas, how the rules we and their parents set, keep them safe from harm. They also learn more deeply about these through our E Safety and Anti-Bullying weeks in school. All members of our school community sign up to our acceptable use policy and pledge to use the internet safely.

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Individual liberty

Our pupils’ Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development is well developed. We encourage our pupils to achieve their very best and to have high aspirations for their future.  Our children have a well-developed understanding of right and wrong through the use of positive role models in school, and they understand right and wrong choices.  We aim to develop responsible and caring members of society who will be able to reflect on their experiences in school and use them to help make informed choices. 

Our children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are advised on how to exercise these safely, for example through our E-Safety and PSHE lessons. We have a strong Anti-Bullying culture at Newcroft. Any issues are dealt with swiftly. Children are also taught at an age appropriate stage about health, medicines, drugs, relationships and puberty. The school has a an effective RSE policy in place.

Choices about learning- we encourage pupils to exercise their rights and make their own choices about how they learn and how they challenge themselves in class through silver star challenges. Pupils use Knowledge Organisers to make choices about their learning. 

Voting- pupils exercise their right to vote in class and in whole school polls regularly. Click on the drop down menu to find our latest pupil survey. 

Click here to see our Year 4 pupils join in a general election vote!

Wider curriculum opportunities- our pupils all have the freedom to choose to take part in wider curriculum opportunities such as music and sport at Newcroft.

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Mutual Respect

Mutual respect is at the heart of our values.

Through our assemblies, PHSE lessons and circle times, children learn that their behaviours have an effect on their own rights and those of others. Our SEND and Equality policies, and their implementation, reinforce our commitment to valuing individuality and inclusion of all.

Pupils at Newcroft learn that their own behaviour has an effect on their own rights and that of others. Through our simple Rainbow Rules and high expectations of behaviour, pupils are encouraged to show mutual respect at all times.

Character education- through our ‘Route to Resilience’ character education work at Newcroft, our pupils have the opportunity in EVERY lesson and in all they do to demonstrate effective character traits for learning and for participating effectively in our school community.

Inspirational people- assemblies and topics throughout the year allow our pupils to learn explicitly about people who have influenced and inspired us.

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Tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs

Our school is located in a predominantly white British community and we are therefore very aware of the need to promote tolerance and understanding of different cultures. If we are to prepare our children to become tolerant and respectful members of the culturally diverse Britain of today, we must equip them with a broad knowledge and an acceptance of difference.  To this end we have introduced weekly RE assemblies. Members of different faiths and religions are invited into school, to share their knowledge and to enhance learning for all age groups.

We learn from each other and through visitors and trips out of school about different faiths and cultures. Our comprehensive RE programme of work allows us to explore a number of faiths with pupils.

Faith celebration days- we hold faith celebration days where we learn about beliefs and key faith celebrations.

Faith excursions- our children have the opportunity to learn more about other faiths through visits to churches and temples.

Challenge- at Newcroft, we actively challenge pupils, parents, staff or anyone in the school community expressing opinions contrary to our British Values.

Prevent and extremism- our PSHE programmes of study allow our teachers to keep our children safe. All our teaching staff have received PREVENT training.

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Being part of Britain

We value and celebrate being part of Britain. In general terms, we celebrate traditions throughout the year; for example, Harvest festival, the Christmas nativity and Easter and we also celebrate national events such as the Queen’s jubilee and the London Olympics.

Geographically, our children learn about their local environment and compare it with different places all around Great Britain, celebrating the diversity of people, customs and the landscape.  Historically, our children learn about British history. This spans across many centuries and includes; the Viking settlers, the Tudors, The Great Fire of London, World War 2 and many famous British people.

A core element of our curriculum is encouraging our children to keep up-to-date with current affairs.  We hold weekly whole school ‘Picture News’ assemblies, which allow us to explore what is happening in Britain, share opinions and reflect on what it is to be British today. Our KS2 children watch a daily episode of ‘Newsround’ in class, and then hold class discussions about topics that are of interest to them. When discussing the events happening in the UK, the choices made by individuals and the subsequent consequences, we are able to reflect on how our moral compass and values influence and guide how we feel and react to them. 

Find out more about our British Values Curriculum