Teaching British values in Nightingale Primary School

All schools have a statutory duty to ‘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. The aim of this is to ensure our young people understand the importance of respect and leave school fully prepared for life in modern Britain.

These values align closely with our school vision for pupils “to begin their journey beyond Nightingale and to shape the society in which we live”. At Nightingale, we ensure that we promote these values through both our planned curriculum and the co-curriculum. Examples of how we do this can be seen below.

Democracy

Our school council is a body of students who have been elected by their peers. They form an active role in leading the strategic direction of our school.
The school’s history curriculum helps the children to appreciate the democratic freedoms of our modern-day society.

The Rule of Law

Our school has clearly articulated expectations for our children’s behaviour, our rules. From the time they join our school community, children begin to learn about why we have these expectations and the impact on others and consequences if these expectations are not met.
Developing our school value of compassion helps the children to think about the impact of their actions on other people.
During their time in school children have the opportunity to hear from people who work to uphold the law, for example through community police officers leading year group assemblies and a judge attending our ‘Big Me’ careers day.
Our Sports Leaders our out in the playgrounds regularly helping children to understand and implement the rules of games they play. This team is made up of pupils in Years 5 and 6 who applied for this position of responsibility.

Individual Liberty

Our pupils are actively encouraged to make choices within the safe supportive environment of the school.
Children are educated to help them stay safe, as they make choices both in school and beyond, for example by learning about online safety and consent.
Developing our school value of courage help children to have the confidence to make their own choices and also to speak out when they see something wrong.

Mutual Respect

The consistent use of Restorative Justice as part of our behaviour management system, helps our children to develop their understanding of the perspectives of others helping them to develop their respect for others.
The development of our value of compassion helps our children to develop their respect for others.
Each member of our School Council is on one of three sub-groups: Restorative Justice Ambassadors, Race and Equality Ambassadors and Anti-Bullying Ambassadors. Through these groups, they take a key leadership role in helping their peers to behave in ways that are respectful towards one another.

Tolerance of Those of Different Faiths

Children learn about the main different faiths through our Religious Education (RE) curriculum. We believe that it is only through a clear understanding of the beliefs of others that children can have tolerance of these beliefs.
As part of this RE curriculum, during their time with us, children will visit places of worship of different faiths and listen to visiting speakers from different faiths.
Our assembly programme is carefully planned with weekly themes that include learning about some of the main religious festivals from a range of faiths during the year, further developing our children’s understanding.
We are lucky enough to have a diverse school community in which a wide range of faiths are represented. Through their daily interactions with others of different faiths or no faith, children further develop their understanding and tolerance of different belief systems to their own.
Developing our school value of curiosity ensures that our pupils want to know more about unfamiliar things, such as the beliefs of others, and thus further their understanding and tolerance.