Godwin Junior School

The British Values

 The British Values of:

• Democracy

• The Rule of Law

• Mutual Respect

• Tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs

• Individual Liberty

​

are embedded within the ethos of the school, incorporated within the curriculum and evident in key aspects of school life. Our assemblies always relate directly to these and we explicitly relate these concepts to the everyday experiences of our children.

Examples of this are:

​

Democracy

• Our School Council is directly elected by their peers and meets regularly to represent pupils' views

• We hold elections to correspond with national elections, with our children forming their own parties and creating manifestos

• Year 5 examine our political system and visit the House of Parliament as part of their history unit 'The Changing Role of The Monarchy'

• Our local MP, Lyn Brown, is a regular visitor to the school and shares her experience of being an MP

​

The Rule of Law

• Our playground charters were devised by the School Council, in consultation with their peers

• Our Local Police Officer frequently visits the school to meet with the children and speak in assemblies

• In assemblies we discuss our school rules and their role in protecting members of our community; we then link this to society

• As a UNICEF Rights Respecting School, our children are aware of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and national governments' pledges to uphold these rights equally for all children

 

Mutual Respect

• Each year group has a charity whose cause they promote, with a key theme being that we are helping people just like us. This helps the children to recognise the need to respect those less fortunate than themselves

• Year 6 learn about the positive contribution to Britain that immigrants have made as part of their study of the history of London

• The core texts that we use in English and the class reading books that we share reflect diversity and promote greater understanding and respect for others

• Through work supporting our status as a UNICEF Rights Respecting School our pupils learn the importance of identifying and tackling discrimination

 

Tolerance

• We celebrate the diversity of our backgrounds and emphasise that we have more in common than we have that divides us

• Through visits to places of religious worship and through faith leaders visiting the school, our children's religious education is enhanced and they are encouraged to make connections between different faiths and their own beliefs

• In our Philosophy for Children sessions and through debating, our children learn the importance of being able to disagree on fundamental issues but remain friends with one another

 

Individual Liberty

• In assemblies we celebrate the fact that our society is one in which we are free to make choices about how we live our lives, both as adults and as children, and draw parallels with other countries where this is not the case

• We discuss the balance between The Rule of Law and Individual Liberty, reflecting on the need to exercise restraint in order for society to be able to function

• When commemorating Remembrance Day in assemblies, we acknowledge the contribution that service personnel have made and continue to make in protecting our freedom

 

 

These core values are central tenets of our school ethos and underpin everything we do. Throughout the day, adults within the school model these behaviours and praise the children when they demonstrate them. Our assemblies are also based on these themes. Our reward system is linked to these principles, with children receiving Silver or Gold Behaviour Awards for consistently displaying behaviour which follows this code.

 

​