Goldington Green is aValues School

Children are taught how their school values underpin everything their school does and this gives a meaningful context for British Values, supporting their understanding of how they underpin our society. Values-based schools ensure that British Values are introduced, discussed and lived out through the wider values-based philosophy that infuses the ethos and work of the school. All curriculum areas provide a vehicle for furthering understanding of these concepts so that pupils can embrace these concepts with enthusiasm and demonstrate a good understanding of their application to their own lives.

The skills and attributes developed through the teaching of values are known to enhance the curriculum and pupils’ learning behaviours, and raise attainment, attendance and pupil wellbeing.

 

Values-based Education works through:

• Values Consciousness
  Teachers think more deeply about their teaching and the values that they model both in and outside of the classroom. Pupils report how a values consciousness impact on their behaviour and actions, which become more altruistic.

• Wellbeing
  In thinking about and enacting values, students develop self-worth, empathy and responsible personal behaviour. Evidence shows that Values-based Education has a very positive effect on pupils who are ‘at risk’, marginalised or disadvantaged. There is compelling evidence that the impact of wellbeing is experienced by teachers, parents and families, in classrooms and across whole schools.

• Agency
  Agency is the capacity of individuals to be self-led, to act independently, to make choices and act on them. The evidence shows that Values-based Education strengthens pupil agency when it involves various forms of giving, outreach and working in the community.

• Connectedness
  Values-based Education builds positive and wide-ranging connections between teachers, pupils and parents. It supports pupil engagement in learning, improves parental engagement in their children’s learning and allows teachers to develop new relationships with their pupils, each other and the parents and families in their school community. This is done through shared goals and practices in Values-based Education, which leads to the development of mutual feelings of respect, trust and safety; and varied opportunities for collaboration. The research findings show that the values lead to improved behaviour in the classroom, school and home.

 

Children’s Needs

In order for the school’s purpose to be effective and for the values to be meaningful to the pupils, the staff understand that the basic needs of children are:

• To be loved.

• To feel secure and know clearly what is expected of them.

• To be valued.

• To have a balance of activities

• To have help to develop relationships.

• To develop self-awareness and a knowledge of the world outside of themselves.

• To have creative experiences, including external exploration and internal reflection.

• To be fully involved in the process of education.

 

Teacher Behaviour

In order to try to meet the needs of children, staff try always to be consistent in their own behaviour and in their expectations of the children. They:

• Value all the children.

• Display great patience and listen carefully to children.

• Focus on and emphasise the positive.

• Face reality and help pupils to come to terms with difficult issues as they arise, such as death.

• Only disapprove of poor behaviour, never the child.

• Try to make time for one another.

• Are mutually supportive.

• Speak quietly and avoid shouting.

• Are valued by the governors and the community.

• Have a good sense of humour.

• Communicate with parents to ensure that they appreciate the school’s values and to ensure that there is a common understanding.

 

Pupil skills

Throughout the school the development of the following skills which contribute to reflective thinking about values are encouraged:

• Displaying helpful politeness and good manners to everyone in school.

• Speaking quietly and politely to others.

• Listening carefully to and thinking about what others are saying.

• Empathy and tolerance.

• Being able to express feelings constructively, thereby learning to manage feelings and resolve conflicts through discussion, understanding and practise.

• Articulating thoughts clearly in order to enhance communication skills.

• Walking quietly about the school building.

• Developing positive attitudes to work and play.

• Accepting personal responsibility for actions.

• Care and respect of other people’s property.

 

Activities that promote Reflective Thinking

Teachers are especially mindful of the activities that promote positive thinking and incorporate these into their teaching as much as possible. These include:

• Creating a peaceful climate in the classroom and on the school site..

• Pupils setting their own targets for their work and behaviour.

• Pupils involved in the assessment of their own work.

• Giving opportunities for decision making.

• School’s behaviour policy that clearly defines how the school puts emphasis on behaving well and positive thinking.

• Giving time in class for pupil to respond to some of the basic needs within us: friendship, love co-operation, to clarify their understanding of values.

• Allowing children to sit and work in silence to think through their own thoughts.

• Helping children to be relaxed and unstressed but focussed on their activities.

 

Appendix 1

Implementing the Values-based Education Programme

• Values are introduced each month and children become familiar with the language and ideas.

• Lots of basic training is needed, especially in the early years: manners, routines, picking up the positive and giving praise when children show respect etc.

• We have high expectations and clear boundaries: the foundation of good values require good discipline.

• At the start of the year class rules are decided with the children: the rules are then real and meaningful for the children.

• Opportunities are taken to discuss values throughout the curriculum.

• As teachers, we try to live the values: we teach best by being role models.