Rationale

We promote British values both within and beyond the classroom and these values are at the heart of our ethos. At Bottesford Infant School our aim is to prepare our children for life in modern Britain by teaching them British values embedded within the schools “WE CARE” values to equip them to be responsible, respectful and active citizens who contribute positively to society. 

Intent

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 government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy.

At Bottesford Infant School, these values are promoted and reinforced regularly through our Mission Statement, the curriculum and wider opportunities.

Our values “WE CARE”: working together; enjoyment; communication; achievement; respect and empowerment are promoted within the British values.

Implementation

At Bottesford Infant School our curriculum aims to deliver a twenty-first century education that will equip our children with the knowledge and skills required to be independent and responsible citizens, “from little acorns grow tall oak trees”. The knowledge and skills are embedded into all aspects of the curriculum (core and foundation subjects), part of the wider curriculum and are also taught discretely through our RE and RSE curriculum. Subject leaders encourage the use of pupil voice as communication is one of our key values which promotes our children’s right to be heard and express their views. We value our children’s opinions because we promote this through our ‘respect’ school value.  We work together with the community (which is one of our school values) to ensure we make a positive difference to our local area. 

Impact

We encourage all children to leave Bottesford Infant School as caring and responsible citizens who will have:

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