British Values

The academy supports and delivers a firm commitment to developing and upholding British Values.

Democracy

We have our own Student Parliament made of up of elected reps, a Student Leadership Group as well as elected Head Boy and Head Girl and SALTs (Student Academy Leadership Team). We also have a range of other student voice groups, including Phase Forums and the 3 Voices – linked to key Academy improvement areas and priorities. Students are taught in a variety of ways including Home Group time, assemblies and in subject specific content about the importance of democracy.

The Rule of Law

The importance of Laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the academy or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout all aspects of academy life. Students and parents are taught the value and reasons behind our rules, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken. We have talks from the Community Police Office team to students on the rule of law.

Individual Liberty

Students are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. We educate and provide boundaries for students to make choices safely, through provision of a safe environment and empowering education.  Students 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 Home Group lessons. Whether it be through choice of learning challenge, of how they record, of participation in our extra-curricular clubs and opportunities, pupils are given the freedom to make choices.

Mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

We place a great emphasis on promoting diversity with the student and staff body. Our RE, assemblies and Home Group teaching reinforce this. Members of different faiths or religions are encouraged to share their knowledge to enhance learning within classes. We expect all members of our academy to show tolerance of different faiths and beliefs.

Radicalisation and Extremism

The academy believes and actively supports the view that all students should be protected from radicalisation and extremism. Our approach to this is in line with the Government’s CONTEST strategy (the counter terrorist strategy) and PREVENT (stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism).

Radicalisation is the process by which people come to support terrorism and extremism, and in some, cases participate in terrorist groups. Extremism is the vocal or active opposition to the fundamental British values in bullet points above.

Our total commitment to safeguarding student welfare means we are vigilant to monitoring vulnerability to radicalisation including:

• Family tensions
• Sense of isolation
• Migration
• Distance from cultural heritage
• Experience of racism or discrimination
• Feeling of failure