At The Ellis C of E Primary school we believe that, through high quality Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMS) provision and underlying ethos of the school, all children achieve their full potential as well developing a full understanding of their role within their community. This ultimately means that our children leave the school at the end of Year 6 as well-rounded young people who are ready to make the transition to secondary school. Part of our role in this preparation is ensuring that we promote and reinforce key values to our students. These include:
The government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy and considered them to be democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. We feel these values sit well with our own key values and are consistently reinforced and respected within our school community.
The examples that follow are an indication of some of the many ways we seek to embed British Values at The Ellis and are an indication of our approach rather than an exhaustive list. Our assembly programme, Golden Rules and wider curricular teaching are key ways in which we develop our key values, including British values with our children.
In Year 5 our children work for the ‘Young Leaders award’ this is lead by the Archbishop of York Youth Trust. The project supports Young children to grow in leadership, faith and character. The aim is to build pupils leadership skills and character, grow in confidence, team work, resilience and care for others and to empower pupils to serve their community.
Democracy
The principle of democracy is consistently reinforced at The Ellis. Elections for School Councillors and the high profile nature of their work as well as work throughout the curriculum and in assemblies ensure that our children have a good understanding of the democratic process, both in school and on a local and national level.
The rule of law
The importance of laws, whether they are those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout regular school days. Our Golden Rules are high profile throughout school and are discussed at length in all classes. Our children recognise the importance of right and wrong and those consequences apply when rules are broken.
Individual liberty
Within our school children are actively encouraged to make independent choices knowing that they are in a safe, secure and supportive environment. As a school we provide clear boundaries for children to make choices safely, starting in our Foundation Stage, through the provision of a safe environment and an inspiring curriculum. Children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights, responsibilities and personal freedoms and receive advice about how to exercise these safely, for example through our exploration of E-Safety. Children have an active role in steering the curriculum through generating questions to guide their learning.
Mutual respect
Respect is at the core of our school ethos and is modelled by children and staff alike. The school promotes respect for others and this is reinforced through our classroom and learning environments as well as our sequence of assemblies. In line with our commitment to democracy, children are always able to voice their opinions and we foster an environment where they are safe to disagree with each other.
Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs
Children are taught to understand their place in our culturally diverse society through our curriculum and SMSC provision. Our high quality RE curriculum introduces a range of religions and beliefs and enables our children to discuss and recognise different beliefs and faiths.
If you have any questions regarding our SMSC provision or promotion of British Values, please do not hesitate to contact us.