The Department of Education have 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.”

As a school community, we do not explicitly promote ‘British’ values. However, these values naturally embody our approach to the opportunities and experiences on offer throughout our learning community. 

Democratic School

• Our youngest children hold a vote within days of starting Fishbourne CE Primary School to decide on their class name… this name follows them through school – reflecting their unique character as a cohort. As they enter KS2, the class have the opportunity to vote again and change their name if they would like to.
• Thinking Circles replaced School Council at Fishbourne CE Primary in September 2017– giving every child a voice and an opportunity to comment on and vote on key issues impacting on school life. Recent achievements of these circles include the rewriting of our Home-School agreement.
• We involve all our families and children in voting for projects that our wonderful FOFS team oversee.

Rules of Law

• At the beginning of each academic year, during our ‘Getting to know you’ learning experiences, each class draws up an agreement centred on the expectations of children as members of the learning community.
• Children, teachers and parents worked together to rewrite our home-school agreement in the spring of 2018, focussing on our learning behaviours: courage, determination, positivity, reflection and collaboration.

Individual Liberty

• Our school motto, ‘Only One You’, celebrates the individuality of every child and adult in our care. We know that each of our children is unique: each has their individual personality, strengths, interests and learning style.
• Whether it be through choice of learning challenge, of how we record our ideas or present our learning, participation in our numerous extra-curricular clubs, the children are given the freedom to make choices and follow their own lines of enquiry.
• The children write their own school reports during the early part of the spring term, during which they are encouraged to reflect on themselves as unique individuals.

Mutual Respect and Tolerance

• We marked Anti-Bullying week in 2018 through a whole school learning experience called ‘Choose Respect’ during which the children debated the question: ‘should bullies be helped or punished?’
• Children identified through our ‘home-school agreement’ that they aspire to be collaborative learners by respecting others, listening to their ideas and supporting the learning of other children in school.
• We respect and acknowledge that different children in school and beyond school have different beliefs. Learning experiences about other world religions give the children opportunities to learn about