British Values

Promoting British Values at Swain House Primary School

At Swain House Primary School we promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and values.

Democracy:
We believe it is vital that our pupils feel a part of our school community and that their opinions and ideas are valued.

In Years 3‐6, our pupils can apply for a job each year. There is a recruitment process that pupils go through; from an assembly to introduce the roles to completing an application form and attending an interview for the role they have chose. Pupils have regular training for their job throughout the year.

The jobs available to pupils are:

• Play Leader
• Buddy
• Furniture operative
• Librarian
• ICT technician
• Digital Leader

Pupils from Years 2‐6 can stand to be a School Council member. These pupils prepare and deliver a speech within their class and then their peers vote in an election process. Pupils have the opportunity for their voices to be heard through a weekly School Council meeting with the Learning Mentor. The elected councillors discuss any issues and suggest ways that Swain House Primary School can be improved. They bring ideas from their class and they contribute to the local and wider community, for example deciding which charities the school should support, running special event days in school and leading assemblies.

Each year our School Council travels to Westminster to meet our local MP who answers the pupils’ questions and have a tour of parliament. Our chair of governors also travels with the School Council for this educational visit. This year, our School Council will attend two of our full Governing Body meetings to ask questions and gain an insight into the work of the Governing Body.

The Rule of Law:
The importance of laws is reinforced throughout the school day with our three school rules. All pupils and adults in school know these rules and they are essential to keep our school a safe learning environment. Our three school rules are displayed in every classroom and are reinforced by all staff members. Pupils are taught the values and reasons behind these rules to promote our pupils’ understand and social development and the consequences when our laws are broken. Our buddies and Play Leaders have roles to support pupils in the playground at playtimes and lunchtimes.

Individual Liberty:
Within school, pupils are actively encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are advised how to exercise these safely and responsibly through our e‐safeguarding assemblies and lessons and PSHE assemblies and lessons. West Yorkshire Police work closelywith us to deliver workshops across KS2 on cyber bullying and how to keep safe online.

At Swain House Primary School the pupils are taught all about ‘The 7 Habits of Happy Kids’ adapted from ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen Covey. This has been embedded across school over the past 8 years and is discussed in class weekly. There is also a dedicated week on the 7 habits at the beginning of each year and in January. This provides our pupils with a set of principles by which to live their lives. It is a step by step pathway for living with:

• Fairness
• Integrity
• Honesty
• Human dignity

These are the principles that give our pupils the security to adapt to change, and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

The Habits are:
Habit 1 ‐ Be Proactive
Habit 2 ‐ Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3 ‐ Put First Things First
Habit 4 ‐ Think Win‐Win
Habit 5 ‐ Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Habit 6 ‐ Synergize
Habit 7 ‐ Sharpen The Saw

Mutual Respect:
Embedded in our school ethos are: ‘The 7 habits of Happy Kids’ where the habit of mutual understanding is ‘Seek First to Understand Then to be Understood’. Pupils learn about the 7 habits through weekly assemblies and lessons.

At Swain House Primary School we have an RP (Resource Provision) for deaf and hearing impaired children.
We ensure our RP pupils are integrated into the school community and they are assigned to a class in school where they spend the afternoons with their peers.

Our pupils are taught to be tolerant and have respect for all members of our society. Pupils in all year groups have learnt about different families including gay and lesbian relationships. They have also learnt about transgendered people and how we show respect for everyone.

Tolerance of those of Different Faiths and Beliefs:
Our pupils share an understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society and have the opportunities to experience diversity. We are proud to be a school with many different heritages. As members of the Interfaith Centre we provide our pupils with educational visits and visitors into school to experience different faiths.

Each class in school performs a faith assembly for the rest of the school and parents to show case the work they have been learning in class. These focus on the six major world religions. Our Religious Education curriculum, which focuses on asking and answering deep questions, allows our pupils to learn about all six major world religions with a large emphasis on Christianity and Islam. Pupils also learn about non‐religious world views as well. Pupils learn about other religions but are also encouraged to express their own values and beliefs.

We believe our school to be at the centre of our local community; our vision and values are embodied in our celebrations and events such as our Harvest assembly, our Nativity, our school fairs, our charitable work and our participation in various sporting and academic events.