British Values at the Federation

At The Trumpington Federation, we take our responsibility very seriously to support our children in becoming good local, national and global citizens of the future; nurturing and modelling high expectations of care and respect for one another.

The Department for Education states that there is a need:

 

“To create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools 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.”

 

Our Federation reflects British values in all that we do, underpinned by universal values which can be seen as equally relevant whether our families are from faith or non-faith background. These core values are regularly endorsed through high quality teaching across the curriculum, through assemblies, and by a positive behaviour policy which allows children to develop and demonstrate skills and attributes that will enable them to contribute positively to life in Modern Britain.

 

We encourage all our children to be creative, unique, open-minded and independent individuals, respectful of themselves and others in our schools. We teach children to consider each other’s ideas and opinions, share responsibilities and respect other people’s views. This develops in our children an understanding of our Federation values, as well as, an appreciation of fundamental British values.

 

Whole school and PTA events such as the Winter Fayre and STEM event reinforces our children’s understanding of their important place within our local community and beyond.

 

We help children to remember the British Values through the thumb and finger model

Thumb – Democracy – up or down to give opinion.

 

Index finger – Rule of Law - pointing

 

Middle finger – Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs – tallest finger pointing to God.

 

Ring Finger – Mutual respect – wedding ring – respect for other people

 

Little finger – Individual Liberty – sticks out on its own.

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At The Trumpington Federation, we actively promote British values in the following ways: -

 

Democracy

 

Democracy is embedded here at The Trumpington Federation. Children are always listened to by adults and are taught to listen carefully, with concern for each other, respecting the right of every individual to have their opinions and voices heard.

​Children undertake roles and responsibilities, such as Head and Deputy Head Boy and Girl, School Council representatives, Environment Champions, Librarians, Playground Champions, Hall and Office Monitors and House Team captains. They make a positive impact on school development and the life of our schools. We believe these responsibilities encourage a growth mindset in children, together with personal and social skills, such as aspiration and co-operation. The elections of our School Council members are based solely on pupil votes, reflecting our British electoral system and demonstrating democracy in action.

Children have many opportunities for their voices to be heard and are actively encouraged to share their ideas and interests and make a meaningful contribution to the running of our schools. Pupil voice is shared via regular School Council meetings which ensure that children at The Trumpington Federation are involved in the development of our schools. Feedback from the children is vital so we can ensure we are meeting the needs of our learners and maintaining relevance and interest. It also empowers children to share their opinions and make a difference for the wider school community.

Ensuring that pupil voice is part of classroom practice means that children are motivated by their learning. This area is often closely linked to choice and steering learning; however, it can be more than allowing children to steer a theme in a certain direction. It can also be ensuring that our planning takes into account their interests, popular culture, as well as current affairs and world events which the pupils are engaged with or excited by.

 

 

Democracy
Curriculum Area	Evidence
School Council	School Council are voted for by the children.
Topic	Children are asked for their feedback in respect of our curriculum and how we can improve it and in some cases to contribute to the planning (EYFS).
PE	During all PE lessons, teamwork and sportspersonship is encouraged.
PSHE	Children are encouraged to listen respectively.

 

Rule of Law

 

The importance of laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced at The Trumpington Federation.

Through our clear and positive behaviour policy, we develop our children’s understanding of the importance of following rules; that they keep us and those around us safe. Children’s self-regulation and understanding that their behaviour affects others and may have consequences is also a crucial part of learning across our Federation.

We give the children lots of small roles with responsibility through the Federation, for example, Environment Champions, Librarians and Playground Champions. This helps them feel a sense of pride and self-worth; which reinforces an understanding of what is ‘the right thing to do.’

 

Visits from community partners such as the police and fire service also help to develop our children’s understanding of roles within society.

 

Rule of Law
Curriculum Area	Evidence
Behaviour	Children understand and follow the schools’ three core rights and responsibilities. A reflection opportunity is included as part of our behaviour policy. This reflection time promotes the value of ***** but also underlines the importance of encourage consideration of consequences.
PSHE	Discussions in PSHE sessions take place on their right to feel safe. Pupils are able to discuss important issues and respectfully share their ideas with others.
Computing	Computing lessons remind children on E- Safety, how to keep safe and who can help them to stay safe.
Assemblies	NSPCC assemblies have been held based on the theme, “Speak out. Stay safe.” Police officers have delivered assemblies for our Y6 pupils to raise the awareness of knife crime.
Policies	Our behaviour, e-safety and anti-bullying policies set clear boundaries that promote the rule of law.

 

Individual Liberty

 

At The Trumpington Federation, children are given the freedom to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment.

 

Children are offered a broad and balanced curriculum and children are able to make choices within the curriculum. Pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and advised how to exercise these safely, for example through our E-Safety and PSHE lessons. They are supported to develop self-knowledge, self-confidence and resilience to cope with set-backs. The RE and PSHE curriculum reinforce opportunities to explore views and opinions.

 

We will shortly be working on the OPAL project which will improve the quality of play opportunities throughout the school day. Through this project, children l will learn boundaries and how to take ‘safe risks’ through our outdoor learning curriculum.

 

Individual Liberty
Curriculum Area	Evidence
Vision and Ethos	Pupils helped us to identify our core vision and values. These are displayed on murals at both schools and referred to regularly in assemblies.
PSHE	Children are increasingly able to show independence in learning and to think for themselves, and our curriculum / values provides them with opportunities to be reflective in their learning / choices. Our broad range of PSHE books celebrate equality and diversity and encourage children to challenge stereotypes. Class debates offer the opportunity for children to have their say and acknowledge the thoughts and reasoning of others.
After school clubs	Pupils are given the freedom to make choices on which and how many they would like to attend.
Lunches	Children get to choose from a wide range of healthy options. Our catering company regularly provide themed lunches to create excitement around the choices, for example, for Lunar New Year, World Book Day etc. which give children exciting new choices.
Fundraising	Pupils are given the opportunity to design and support fundraising events.
Playtimes	Children make sensible choices at lunch time in respect of activities offered. Our ‘playpod scrapstore’ offers all children the variety, and freedom to extend the possibilities of play.
Learning outside the classroom	Children are offered the opportunity to take part in numerous events outside of school including The Primary Maths Challenge, Young Voices Choir and sporting festivals.
Roles and responsibilities	Children have opportunities for independence such as moving freely around school, taking messages or registers and choosing lunch choices; pupils across school have key roles and responsibilities

 

Mutual Respect

 

The Federation has a very strong inclusive ethos of care and respect developed around our core rights and responsibilities and behaviour policy. Respect is modelled, taught and expected every day and forms a key part of our value system. Our approach is one of promoting values of good behaviour within an ethos which fosters discipline and mutual respect between pupils, between staff and pupils, and between all members of our community. We do this by providing strategies to assist children in demonstrating the ‘5Rs’ - resilience, readiness, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and responsibility.

Our staff, governors and pupils contributed to our updated vision and values which identify our Federation’s core principles; these are founded on mutual respect. These are the values we hope and aspire that our children will foster during their time at our schools. We look at examples of these values in practice through weekly assemblies and reflect on their importance.

 

 

Mutual Respect
Curriculum Area	Evidence
Core rights and responsibilities	At the Trumpington Federation all members of our community have three core rights:   The right to learn without unfair distraction The right to be safe physically and emotionally The right to be treated with respect   With those rights comes the responsibility to respect the rights of others and to ensure that our behaviour does not impact on the rights of other members of our community.
Resources	We have invested in a large selection of books to support the teaching of PSHE. Topics covered include: emotions, identity, families, gender, stereotypes and LGBTQ+. Many of these books have been paired with lesson ideas/questions to support teachers.
RE/PSHE	These subjects allow us to discuss differences between people, such as differences of faith, ethnicity, disability and gender and differences of family situations, such as looked-after children or young carers. We encourage children to challenge prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour.

Tolerance of Other Faiths and Beliefs

At The Trumpington Federation we understand our role in preparing the children to take their place in a culturally diverse society. We recognise that our children come from a wide variety of backgrounds, including children from faith and non-faith communities. It is the Federation’s aim to develop well-rounded citizens who understand religion, appreciate similarities and differences within and across religions, can embrace diversity, respect individuals and are able to express their own thoughts and beliefs whilst showing respect and tolerance of others’ thoughts and beliefs.

 

Through our curriculum and enhancing the pupils' understanding, we are able to prepare them for life beyond The Trumpington Federation. We ensure that assemblies and discussions involving prejudices and prejudice-based bullying are delivered and that the key messages are then re-enforced through the curriculum, trips and extra-curricular activities.

Tolerance of Other Faiths and Beliefs
Curriculum Area	Evidence
RE	- We follow the Cambridgeshire agreed syllabus and our curriculum therefore covers a broad spectrum of religions to develop our pupils’ religious literacy. One agreed aim of the syllabus is for pupils to develop attitudes of respect towards other people who hold views and beliefs different from their own. Our RE curriculum enables pupils to ask questions, acquire new knowledge with empathy and develop their personal position. Pupils are encouraged continually to explore the similarities and differences between themselves and their peers and to accept everyone’s right to ‘difference’. - Pupils of different faiths, religions and cultures are invited to share their knowledge to enhance learning within classes and the school.
Safeguarding	- There is an inclusion team and a number of Designated Safeguarding Leads who support the safety of all children and adults. They have also attended training that is linked to FGM, sexualisation and radicalisation.  - All staff are Level 1 Safeguarding and PREVENT trained. They are aware of how to share concerns.
Visits and Visitors	Children are given the opportunity to develop an understanding and respect of a range of groups from different ethnic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds. This is being achieved through a range of visits and visitors, resources and assemblies.