Teaching British Values
The DfE has recently reinforced the 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.”
The government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy. The British Values have been separated into four headings; Benington Nursery actively promotes and support each value in everyday nursery life;
Democracy
Here at Glebe Kids the children views are very important to us and we ensure each child always feels listened to by all adults and friends around them. When staff are planning in the moment, they take the children’s interests and work around them, we always record what the children would like to do by asking or giving them different choices. This very much encourages child-initiated planning and gives the children the opportunity and resources to make choices and decisions about what they want and to explore by themselves. At circle time we encourage the children to take turns by putting their hands up to choose different songs, stories and games. Response systems like this engage all the children and sets an expectation that all children are worth hearing, children learn that it is important to take time to listen to others.
Rule of Law
At Glebe Kids we aim towards an environment in which children can develop self- discipline and self-esteem in an atmosphere of mutual respect and encouragement. Staff continuously model positive behaviour throughout the setting and work as a team. We have a basic set of golden rules that we talk about at circle time to remind the children positively of what the rules are when coming to nursery. The golden rules help the children to begin to understand their own behaviour, which is helping them to distinguish right from wrong.
We also have a tidying up strategy; before the children tidy up we all sing the ‘5 more minutes’ song! When the 5 minutes is up, the adults start to sing our tidy up song while encouraging all children to tidy away the toys the children start to realise that all of their friends and teachers are working together to make the room tidy
Individual Liberty
All staff at Glebe Kids recognise and understand that we have a major part in developing children’s self knowledge and raising children’s self-esteem. Every day at nursery we have a circle time, this allows the children to all sit down together and sing/talk to each other and adults to! We sing our welcome song singing all the children’s names so they feel welcomed and noticed at the start of their day!
We believe circle time and small groups are opportunities for the children to talk about their experiences, we encourage them by reading different stories, asking and answering questions and just making time to allow the children to have their say and listen to all of their friends. We allow the children to collect, mix and choose their own resources to develop their confidence in their own abilities, self knowledge and self-esteem. We provide children with a stimulating and challenging environment inside and outside where playing and learning go hand in hand!
Mutual Respect & Tolerance
We aim to be part of a community, manage our feelings and behaviour and form relationships with others. We ensure that our nursery is fully inclusive in meeting all children’s needs. We share stories that reflect and value diversity, we have signs and displays around the room that promote equality and support the children in understanding similarities and differences between themselves and others. We have a family board which has pictures of all our children’s families.
We love to include celebrations and different experiences from around the world. We also invite parents/carers and other professionals in to share their different experiences, cultures/traditions and complete activities with the children to show we are involved with the wider community and value the contribution of all families. Our job role is to help children to appreciate and respect their own culture and the culture of others