Values
Our School Values
Values are the ‘principles which guide our thinking and our behaviour’.
Values refer to three main spheres of our lives, notably the values we hold towards Self, such as honesty, perseverance, the values we hold towards Others, such as respect, acceptance, kindness, and the values we hold towards the World, such as protecting the environment, recycling, and social justice.
At The Horsell Village School, every individual within our community is recognised and valued. Through our five key values we support the personal, social and spiritual development of every pupil throughout the school.
We have five key values at school. One of these is explored each half term; to aid and deepen children’s understanding. Our values are on display in every classroom.
- Respect – Respect self, fellow pupils, teachers and other adults. Respect their own and others property. Respect the right that everyone can have their own thoughts, values and opinions.
- Honesty – Be truthful to ourselves and others.
- Co-operation – collaborate with our peers to gain the most from our learning, to learn from each other and utilising everyone’s skills.
- Appreciation – to learn to build positive relationships with others by developing effective communication, trust and to understand the worth, quality and importance of something or someone.
- Responsibility – To develop a sense of community, knowing that actions have an impact on them and others.
Our values are underpinned by the core principle of kindness, which we teach through:
Kindness to yourself Kindness to others Kindness to the world
Promoting British Values at The Horsell Village School
Alongside the 5 key values, we also teach British Values.
The DfE reinforce 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.”
Here at The Horsell Village School, these values are taught explicitly through our Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) and Religious Education (RE) curriculums. The British Values are also reinforced regularly during the school day and through our half termly values which are explored through assemblies and classroom activities.
British Values
- Mutual respect– respecting each other’s ideas during lessons/talk partners. Part of our school ethos and behaviour policy has revolved around our ‘Values Based’ education where values such as ‘respect’ are taught and modelled. Children take part in discussions where they are expected to treat the opinions and views of others with respect, even if they differ from their own.
- Individual liberty– ‘my right’… to go to school, my responsibility to look after my classroom/school.
- Tolerance (Acceptance) of those with different faiths and beliefs– welcome all visitors to the school (open the book) and share our own experiences within the class i.e. Christmas or holiday traditions. We aim to enhance children’s understanding of different faiths and beliefs by participating in a range of celebrations throughout the year.
- Democracy– school council, writing class contracts together. Our pupils have the opportunity to be heard through our pupil dialogues
- The rule of law– Class contracts. Knowing how their behaviour affects others and the need for rules in school. We consistently reinforce our high expectations of our children. They are taught the value and reasons behind our expectations that they are there to protect us