British Values

Our School Definitions for the British Values areas are:

Individual Liberty - is when people have the freedom to choose their faith, beliefs, likes and dislikes which are outside Government control
Rule of Law - means that all people and groups are ruled by the same laws which help to keep us all safe and happy
Democracy - is when a group of people have equal rights and the freedom to choose how they are treated, rather than when one person has all the power and makes all the decisions
Tolerance of different cultures and religions - A fair, objective and permissive attitude to those whose faith may differ from one's own
Mutual Respect - is understanding that we all don't share the same beliefs and values. It is respecting the values, ideas and beliefs of others

3 I'S STATEMENT FOR BRITISH VALUES

Intent Statement - British Values

St Joseph’s is committed to serving its community. We recognise the multi-cultural, multi faith and ever-changing nature of the United Kingdom. Whilst promoting a Catholic ethos within our school, we are dedicated to doing all we can to prepare our pupils for the life in modern Britain. We enable our children to become independent, reflective and creative learners who are able to positively face challenges set before them. This ethos is interwoven and embedded throughout the life of our Catholic school. We celebrate and explore British Values throughout our creative and connected curriculum; in addition to this, we ensure that British Values are introduced, explored discussed and lived-out through our ethos and work of the school through planned focus weeks of each value. All curriculum areas provide further understanding of these concepts and in particular our Commando Joe missions and RE, RSHE and wellbeing lessons provide excellent opportunities to deepen and develop understanding and to make sense of the values personally. Our children embrace these concepts with enthusiasm and demonstrate a good understanding of their application to their own lives. We recognise and celebrate this within our school through British Value certificates during celebration assemblies.

Implementation Statement - British Values

At St Joseph’s, these values are reinforced regularly and in the following ways:

British Values are taught in every year group, including early years, ensuring all children are explicitly exposed to all five values through specific focus sessions
Our focus sessions are carefully planned to make links to our Commando Joe curriculum, where possible
British Values planning is added to our topic planner document with an outline of the activity and how the evidence will be recorded
British Values assemblies are held to Y1-Y6 by the British Values subject leader
Pupils record their British Value work in their topic portfolios (Y1-Y6) and is marked in accordance with our marking policy, as any other lesson would be
Pupils are challenged in -line with their year group expectations and are given the opportunity to build on their prior knowledge and contextual understanding of each value
Effective CPD opportunities are available to staff through the National College to ensure high levels of confidence and knowledge are maintained
To support teaching, the British Values subject leader suggests lesson ideas to support teaching staff
All classrooms have a British Values display
We have a whole school British Values display in our eating area and can therefore be seen by all children
Our focus session activities are shared with families through Class Dojo and the school website
Children’s ideas are celebrated through a British Value award during our celebration assemblies

FOCUS SESSION 1 - All classes review the five different values. Children think about how we already promote these values within our school community and produce evidence towards this in an age appropriate manner, whether that be a written piece of work, pupil voice recordings or photographs. Our whole school focus session of all values is held in the autumn one term.

DEMOCRACY –

Democracy is embedded in our school. Children are always listened to by adults and are taught to listen carefully and with concern to each other, respecting the right of every individual to have their opinions and voices heard. Pupils also have the opportunity to air their opinions and ideas through pupil voice sessions led by subject leaders. The elections of our class chaplains and eco warrior members are based solely on pupil votes, reflecting our British electoral system and demonstrating democracy in action. Our pupils see democracy as a key way to work in a team and achieve success during our Commando Joe missions.

Our whole school democracy focus session is held in the autumn one term.

INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY –

At St Joseph’s, we believe that each and every child is important and has much to offer to our school. Being a fairly small school, we are able to know each family well and develop positive relationships which are invaluable in supporting teaching and learning. Each child is encouraged to think for themselves, make their choices and develop independence in their learning. We educate and provide boundaries for young pupils to make choices safely, through provision of a safe environment and empowering education, for example through our e-safety and PSHE sessions. We explore the meaning of equality and fairness in a range of contexts. Whether it be through choice of learning challenge, of how they record their learning (particularly in upper KS2), of participation in our numerous extra-curricular clubs and opportunities, pupils are given the freedom to make choices.

Our whole school individual liberty focus session is usually held in the autumn two term.

RULE OF LAW –

The importance of laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout regular school days, as well as when dealing with behaviour and through school assemblies. Pupils are taught the value and reasons behind laws, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken. Visits from authorities such as the Police and Fire Service help reinforce this message. Our Commando Joe missions have clear rules that pupils and teams must follow in order to achieve their mission outcome.

Our whole school rule of law focus session is usually held in the spring term.

MUTUAL RESPECT –

Mutual respect is at the heart of our values at St Joseph’s. We encourage children to value other people’s views, beliefs and opinions as being equal to their own. Children learn that their behaviours have an effect on their own rights and those of others. All members of our school community treat each other with respect and this is something that we pride ourselves upon. Children know that respect is expected, and is shown to everyone, whatever the differences we may have. This is a key facet to our RE, PSHE and wellbeing learning generally. Our pupils are nurtured to develop self-respect through achievable target setting and regular meaningful rewards alongside our Commando Joe RESPECT curriculum.

Our whole school mutual respect focus session is usually held within the spring term.

TOLERANCE OF OTHER CULTURES AND BELIEFS –

We encourage pupils to celebrate the differences between people as a source of new perspective and strength. We promote unity through identifying where and how people have things in common. A key part of our Commando Joe RESPECT curriculum is how to work in teams, understanding and appreciating the differences inherent to them. Our pupils learn to celebrate difference. Our interfaith experience weeks celebrate this, such as our Indian experience day that was held as a celebration of our Hinduism focus week. Children within the early years are exposed to a plethora of religious celebrations such as Shabbat and Diwali. This acts as a foundation to build understanding and lasting relationships between people of all faiths and non-religious beliefs. Throughout all these activities, our children gain an enhanced understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society.

Our whole tolerance of other cultures and beliefs focus session is usually held within the summer term.

Impact Statement - British Values

As our mission statement says “At St Joseph's, our Mission is to allow everyone to develop to their full potential in the light of the teachings of Jesus Christ. We believe that each individual should be free to grow in a loving and merciful school community, rooted in determination, courage and hard work. By the grace of God each person can be nurtured to fulfil their purpose.” This is promoted through British Values so that our children make a positive impact on society and the world around us.

Through our teachings, children at St Joseph’s are exposed to personally experience compassion, empathy, consideration and respect. Our children evidently make a meaningful and positive contribution to Rossington’s community through our participation of events such as Day of the Dead, CAFOD Harvest Fast, Doncaster food bank donations, Year Two litter picking events, Operation Christmas Child, support boxes for the homeless and many, many more charity events that we are proud to support.

Please click below to view Our St Joseph's Statement

St Joseph's British Values Statement

Further information from the DFE regarding British Values can be found by clicking here

British Values 2022/2023

Autumn 1 Individual Liberty and Democracy

Nursery

In nursery we promote the British value of individual liberty daily. In our outdoor area we encourage the children to create their own obstacle courses and to take and manage their own risks, such as climbing a tree, or balancing on planks. We support the children’s self-confidence to be able to make their own choices in nursery and to play with activities that engage them and to which they have an interest in.