British values at Kings Meadow School
At Kings Meadow children will encounter the principles of British Values throughout everyday school life. They are embedded in our own school values, and are a part of our ethos and approach to working with pupils with complex social, emotional, and mental health needs.
Here are some examples of how we promote these values in our school community:
Democracy
Pupil voice is important at Kings Meadow School and is highly valued. Our version of a school council, the School Crew, is made up of at least one representative from each class who have applied for a place within the group. They have assigned roles and responsibilities to different members after reaching a consensus together based on recognising individual strengths and abilities.
Consultation with the pupils about matters related to how the school is run often take place through assemblies and class discussions. They contribute ideas towards the School Development Plan, the budget and share their views on a range of different aspects of school life
Older pupils have engaged in a project around the development of their own country which has involved them in electing a government and included specific learning about democracy. Learning experiences related to the national general election are planned.
The Rule of Law
Our pupils will encounter rules and laws throughout their entire lives. At Kings Meadow we consistently model and teach the necessity for rules and we have a whole school system of rewards and consequences. We have a strong ethos of celebrating success, no matter how small, and of teaching our pupils how to ‘put things right’ when a rule has been broken. We believe in using restorative approaches to doing this and regularly review our practice to ensure it is appropriate to meet the very individual needs of our pupils.
Individual Liberty
Our children are educated about rights and responsibilities through assemblies, as part of the curriculum and through the specialist practice used by the staff to support them in managing their social and emotional needs. There are many opportunities for our children to take on a range of responsibilities from regular small jobs helping their class mates and adults to bigger roles such as the Junior Librarian and members our School Crew.
Whenever possible, our pupils are encouraged to make their own decisions in accordance with their age, ability and level of maturity and to reflect on these decisions with adult support. We ensure appropriate boundaries are in place and educate our children to make safe choices, using our Kings Meadow Behaviour Curriculum to support this aspect of our work.
Mutual respect
We are a strongly values based school and promote mutual respect through our ethos and everyday practice. PSHE and assemblies provide valuable opportunities to help the children understand this important value. We teach the children about fairness and, as a school that strongly believes in the value of physical activity and learning outside the classroom for our children, often do this through PE whilst teaching the rules and penalties that are part of sport. We also teach our children that fairness in our school is not about everyone having the same but everyone having what they need.
As part of our School Development Plan, we are developing stronger links with the wider community and buddy and mentor schemes, both internally and externally.
Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs
Our RE curriculum provides opportunities for the children to learn about all the major faiths, with an emphasis on identifying similarities and celebrating differences. We are developing wider links with the local, national and international communities and encourage visitors from other cultures as part of our curriculum enrichment.