British Values
At Holme Valley we take great pride in preparing our children for life in Modern Britain. We actively promote British values as part of the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development of our children.
But what is Britishness, and how does it impact on what we do in school? There are many ways to define Britishness. Our children at Holme Valley have lived through and celebrated historical times for our country, including Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, a royal wedding, WW1 centenary, the British Olympic and Paralympic Games. However, they are growing up in a diverse multicultural society that does continue to be troubled by a threat of extremism.
It is therefore essential that at Holme Valley we give our children a real sense of belonging to a wider community, and to the country that they live, by promoting British values and enabling them to fully contribute positively to life in Britain. It is important for the children to understand that they do live in a global society and that British values of mutual respect, democracy, rule of law and individual liberties are shared by many different countries and cultures. We ensure that British values are embedded throughout our curriculum, in particular within our RE, SMSC and PSHE. We make considerable effort to ensure that our children have wide and varied experiences beyond their local community. We provide the children with varied school trips and we actively encourage visitors in school from different faith groups.
Education regulations state that to meet the standard for the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development of pupils, schools must actively 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.
We must ensure that principles are actively promoted which:
- Enable pupils to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence
- Enable pupils to know right from wrong and to respect the criminal law of England
- Encourage pupils to accept responsibility for their behaviour
- Enable pupils to acquire a broad general knowledge and respect for public institutions and services in England
- Enable pupils to acquire an appreciation of respect for their own and other cultures
- Encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic process, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England
