British Values

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What is meant by “British Values”?

All schools have a duty 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.
Through our provision of SMSC (social, moral, spiritual and cultural), we:

Enable students to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence;
Enable students to distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law in England;
Encourage students to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and to understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those in the school and society;
Enable students to acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public institutions and services in Britain;
Promote tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling students to acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures;
Encourage respect for other people;
Encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes.

How does Brigshaw promote these values?
Our core values fully encapsulate how central the British values outlined above are to everything we believe in and do at Brigshaw. Our strapline ‘Respect for Learning’ also helps students to understand what these values mean to their everyday life in school.

British values are embodied in the following more specific ways:

Our Religious Studies curriculum helps students to learn about, understand and debate a multitude of topics that are directly applicable to promoting British values, for example:

An understanding of other cultures and religions
What does it mean to live in multi-faith Britain?
Beliefs at the heart of Christianity
How do religious views affect medical decisions?
What is religion?
Religion and the State
War, peace and forgiveness

Students participate in six 'drop-down' days of Personal Health, Social and Citizenship Education from Years 7-11. These themed days help students to develop a full understanding of the world around them, so that they can make informed choices in their lives. Key parts of this programme focus on the nature of democracy in Britain and the world of work.

British values are also firmly embedded in other areas of the curriculum (eg Drama, Science, English, MFL). Please follow this link to find out more.
House Assemblies, held once a week, focus on many of these identified elements through their themes.
Our Student Leadership system encourages students to engage in the democratic process by standing for positions such as House Captain, Form Captain or Subject Ambassador.
We use ‘Restorative Practice’ as a key plank in our behaviour systems, so that students are actively encouraged to distinguish right from wrong and to take responsibility for their actions.
Each of our Houses supports a charity every year (students vote on which charity to support).
Our many international visits, and particularly our exchange programmes, encourage students to appreciate other cultures whilst also raising their awareness of British culture. For example, students who took part in our Tokyo exchange in 2015 were able to think about how our culture and traditions differ from those in Japan.
We take any opportunity in school to make sure that students have an appreciation of the values that come through from British history and British institutions. For example, we always commemorate Remembrance Day in school and in 2015 we used form periods for a fortnight to ensure that students learnt about the UK Parliamentary process, before we then staged our own ‘Mock General Election’.

You can also view our Parent's Prevent leaflet for further information.