British Values

At St Botolph’s C E Academy we take very seriously our responsibility to prepare children for life in modern Britain. We ensure that the fundamental British Values are introduced, discussed, taught and lived out through our Academy. All curriculum areas provide a vehicle for furthering understanding of these concepts and, in particular, our RE, SMSC and SEAL lessons provide excellent opportunities to deepen and develop understanding. Children embrace these concepts with enthusiasm and demonstrate a good understanding of their application to their own lives.

The Academy makes considerable efforts to ensure children have exposure to a wide experience beyond their local community during which these concepts are shown, through for example,  our strong links with our local church, sporting events, residential visits to outdoor centres and through visits and visiting speakers from all faiths and groups.  Their strong-rooted values-based understanding gives them an excellent platform for embracing difference.

At St Botolphs, these values are reinforced regularly and in the following ways

The Rule of Law

The importance of laws, whether they are those that govern the class, the school or the country, are consistently reinforced. Our behaviour system is linked to a set of ’Goodly Rules’, which are reinforced through Collective Worship and in all lessons.  The children discuss and share their understanding of these within their own class contexts,  which  ensures that they are relevant and clearly understood by all. Our pupils are taught the value and reasons behind laws, the responsibility they have to up hold them and that there are consequences when laws are broken.

Respect  for self and others

Our Academy ethos and behaviour policy are based around Core Christian values and “respect” is one of our Core Values, which determine how we live as a community at St Botolph’s.  Worship is based on our Christian values and they are central to how we expect everyone to go about their life at our Academy. Values are visible around the Academy. Children know and understand what  is expected and that it is imperative that respect to shown to everyone, whatever differences we may have, and to everything, however big or small. It underpins our work every day, both in and out of the classroom.

Democracy

Democracy is an important part of our academy. Pupils are listened to by adults and are taught to actively listen to one another, respecting the right of every individual to have their opinions and voices heard. Pupils have the opportunity to share opinions and ideas through the Academy Council and ‘pupil voice’ discussions. During the first week of a new academic year, Saintly team captains in Y6 and the academy council are voted for by the rest of school. This Academic year will see the launch of head boy and head girl! 

Individual liberty

Within school, pupils are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. Our children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are advised how to exercise these safely through many curriculum subjects, particularly in PSHE.

Tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs

As a Church of England Academy, the Christian values and faith is an integral part of the children’s day to day learning. Part of this is an understanding of different faiths and beliefs, which is taught through all subjects, but especially in RE and through Collective Worship. Last academic year we have developed a link with a school of different religious context. Our academy council emailed the pupils at Sandal Magna community academy and invited them to experience what Christmas was like in a church school. They also compared both school buildings, which are dramatically different. Our Academy Council then  visited Sandal Magna to compare similarities and differences in buildings and to understand how many different languages are spoken at their school. They sampled some asian cuisine. More visits are planned this year and will widen to include a whole class swap, rather than just the academy council.