Value & Attributes

Aim

• Our aim is to raise the standard bar by promoting the school ethos, which is underpinned by core values.
• The values support the development of the child as a reflective learner within a calm, caring, happy and purposeful atmosphere.

Values-based Education

Values-based Education is truly transformational, providing a structure for a positive ethos that impacts on the whole school community. It has a direct influence on the entire curriculum.

Values-based Education works through:

1. 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 values consciousness impact on their behaviour and actions, which become more altruistic.

2. 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.

3. Connectedness

Values-based Education builds positive and wide-ranging connections between teachers, pupils and parents. It supports pupil engagement in learning, improves parent 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.

4. Transformation

Change and transformation are at the heart of Values-based Education and is the result of teachers and pupils being urged to engage in continuous reflection on the actions they implemented in their schools.

5. Achievement

As a result of the above, Pupils report a deeper engagement in and connection to their learning and demonstrate an understanding of the responsibilities this entails for themselves and others.

Children’s Needs

1. In order for the school’s purpose to be effective and for the values to be meaningful to the pupils, the staff understands that the basic needs of children are:
2. To be loved.
3. To feel secure and know clearly what is expected of them.
4. To be valued.
5. To have a balance of activities – active/passive; quiet/talking; communicating/reflective; taught skills/exploratory work.
6. To help them develop relationships.
7. To develop self-awareness and a knowledge of the world outside of themselves.
8. To have creative experiences, including external exploration and internal reflection.
9. To be fully involved in the process of education.

Educator's Behaviour

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

1. Value all the children.
2. Display great patience and listen carefully to children.
3. Focus on and emphasise the positive.
4. Face reality and help pupils to come to terms with difficult issues as they arise, such as death.
5. Only disapprove of poor behaviour, never the child.
6. Try to make time for one another.
7. Are mutually supportive.
8. Speak quietly and avoid shouting.
9. Are valued by the governors and the community.
10. Have a good sense of humour.
11. Communicate with parents to ensure that they appreciate the school’s values and to ensure that there is a common understanding.

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:

1. Creating a peaceful climate in the classroom and on the school site.
2. Taking children to beautiful places to experience peaceful places and encourage them to value them.
3. Pupils setting their own targets for their work and behaviour.
4. Pupils involved in the assessment of their own work.
5. Giving opportunities for decision making.
6. Giving time in class for pupil to respond to some of the basic needs within us: friendship, love and co-operation, to clarify their understanding of values.
7. Allowing children to sit and work in silence to think through their own thoughts.
8. Helping children to be relaxed and unstressed but focused on their activities.
9. Are valued by the governors and the community.
10. Opportunity for role-play so that skills associated with negotiation, co-operation and assertiveness are developed. This helps children to understand the potential consequences of giving way to peer pressure.