British ValuES
How We Teach British Values At Stonebroom
British Values & PHSE
British Values are taught within every class. It is taught as PHSE following the Jigsaw Approach.
The weekly celebration is the same for each year group – these are designed to draw out a key theme from each week and reinforce its application; in turn, this ensures the Jigsaw learning is translated into behaviour and attitudes and is not confined to the lesson slot on the timetable.
This theme is introduced every first Monday of the half term by Mrs George in the whole school assembly.
Whole School:
Autumn 1 – Being Me in My World
Autumn 2 – Celebrating Difference (including anti-bullying)
Spring 1 – Dreams & Goals
Spring 2 – Healthy Me
Summer 1 – Relationships
Summer 2 – Changing Me (including sex education.)
Jigsaw is a comprehensive and completely original PSHE Education programme for the whole primary school from Years F1 and 2 through to Year 6 (ages 3-11).
Jigsaw has two aims for all children:
• To build their capacity for learning
• To equip them for life
Jigsaw brings together PSHE Education, emotional literacy, mindfulness, social skills and spiritual development. A variety of teaching strategies are used and are mindful of each child’s preferred learning style. Jigsaw is designed as a whole school approach, with all year groups working on the same theme (Puzzle) at the same time. This enables each Puzzle to start with an introductory assembly, generating a whole school focus for adults and children alike. There is a Weekly Celebration that highlights a theme from that week’s lesson across the school, and encourages children to reflect that learning in their behaviour and attitudes. It also brings in the British Values of: Respect, Democracy, Tolerence, Rule of Law & Liberty
Being Me In My World covers a wide range of topics, including a sense of belonging, welcoming others and being part of a school community, a wider community, and a global community; it also looks at children’s rights and responsibilities, working and socialising with others, and pupil voice.
Celebrating Difference focuses on similarities and differences and teaches about diversity, such as disability, racism, power, friendships, and conflict; children learn to accept everyone’s right to ‘difference’, and most year groups explore the concept of ‘normal’; bullying – what it is and what it isn’t, including cyber and homophobic bullying – is an important aspect of this Puzzle.
Dreams and Goals aims to help children think about their hopes and dreams, their goals for success, what personal strengths are, and how to overcome challenges, via team work skills and tasks. There is also a focus on enterprise and fundraising. Children learn about experiencing and managing feelings of pride, ambition, disappointment, success; and they get to share their aspirations, the dreams and goals of others in different cultures/countries, and their dreams for the world.
Healthy Me covers two main areas of health: Emotional health (relaxation, being safe, friendships, mental health skills, body image, relationships with food, managing stress) and Physical health (eating a balanced diet, physical activity, rest and relaxation, keeping clean, drugs and alcohol, being safe, first aid) in order for children to learn that health is a very broad topic.
Relationships has a wide focus, looking at diverse topics such as families, friendships, pets and animals, and love and loss. A vital part of this Puzzle is about safeguarding and keeping children safe; this links to cyber safety and social networking, as well as attraction and assertiveness; children learn how to deal with conflict, their own strengths and self-esteem. They have the chance to explore roles and responsibilities in families, and look at stereotypes. All Jigsaw lessons are delivered in an age- and stage-appropriate way so that they meet children’s needs.
Changing Me deals with change of many types, from growing from young to old, becoming a teenager, assertiveness, self-respect and safeguarding. Self and body image, puberty, attraction and accepting change are diverse subjects for children to explore. Each year group thinks about looking ahead, moving year groups or the transition to secondary school. Life cycles and how babies are made and grow are treated sensitively and are designed to meet children’s needs. All year groups learn about how people and bodies change. This Puzzle links with the Science curriculum when teaching children about life cycles, babies and puberty.
British Values & R.E.
We have adopted a whole school R.E. approach following the Derbyshire Agreed Religious Education Syllabus and teaching from a scheme which follows this directly. This has very clear links with the British Values :
Individual liberty
RE promotes the idea that individuals have freedom to choose what they believe. Woven into every topic is the idea that not everyone is the same. A class cannot investigate the behaviour of ‘all Muslims’ or ‘all Christians’, because not everyone within a faith will practise it in the same way. For example, a Year 4 enquiry asks, ‘What does it mean to be a Christian in Britain today?” Some Christians will choose to go to church every week and have the community of the church at the very centre of their family lives. Others will not, choosing a more esoteric approach to living their faith.
Year 5 investigate the question “What matters most to Christians and Humanists?” They discover and learn about how they should care for others and the world and why it matters. Through these enquiries children are given the opportunity to explore, gain knowledge and to reach an understanding that people are at liberty to choose how they express their faith and what they believe in.
Rule of law
There are many examples of ‘rule of law’ within the Derbyshire’s agreed syllabus. Children are encouraged to think about the laws, commandments, expectations within a faith and how those rules would impact on their own lives as well as on the lives of the people within those religions. In Year 3, the enquiry, ‘Why do people pray?’ gives the opportunity to explore the expectations and ritual surrounding prayer. Year 3 is also asked, ‘Why is the Bible so important for Christians today?’ They are asked to consider the question ‘Does living biblically mean obeying the whole Bible?’
Children are enabled to understand the origins of the various codes of conduct, rules, laws and expectations put forward by different religions and belief positions, and to consider their own position in relation to these.
Mutual respect, democracy and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs.
These three concepts stand at the very heart of every classroom. Every lesson is a chance to demonstrate them. Teachers have opportunity to model respect, tolerance and democracy within the classroom, allowing all children the opportunity to speak, using class voting systems and debate and using trips and visitors to bring the subject to life.
Using the enquiry method means that children are discussing issues in RE that some adults would find uncomfortable. For example, in Year 6, children discuss the topic “What do religions say to us when life gets hard?” Through learning about faith practices and really investigating what they mean for the individuals, children are encouraged to develop mutual respect and tolerance but also to develop critical thinking skills enabling them to question and discuss beliefs and the ways they might be manifested. They are also enabled, through their knowledge, to challenge ideas about religion and spot intolerance when they see it amongst their community and in the media.
The Derbyshire Agreed Religious Education Syllabus advocates the holistic study of one religion/belief system at a time to avoid confusion, but in due course, children will begin to identify similarities and draw comparisons between different faiths. For example, by Year 2, most children will have noticed that different religious festivals involve similar activities. They can understand what having special food, getting together with family and friends, wearing special clothes or sharing a special story might be like for children of faith, because they will have had some experience of this themselves. Through the framework of their own experience, they learn to understand and respect the experiences of others. They are also enabled through their knowledge to challenge ideas about religion and recognise intolerance.
Most children enjoy talking about their religion and beliefs and what these means to them; and most children enjoy hearing about the lives of their classmates. By giving this, through RE, a place in the curriculum, we are giving the message that it is important to understand the beliefs of others, that it is important to listen to the story of another human being.
