Portway Infant School
Portway Infant School is committed to serving its community and surrounding areas. It recognises the multi-cultural, multi-faith and ever-changing nature of the United Kingdom, and therefore those it serves. It also understands the vital role it has in ensuring that groups or individuals within the school are not subjected to intimidation or radicalisation by those wishing to unduly, or illegally, influence them.
The school, as a ‘Community School’, accepts admissions from all those entitled to an education under British law, including pupils of all faiths or none. It follows the policies outlined by its governing body regarding equal opportunities, which guarantee that there will be no discrimination against any individual or group, regardless of faith, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, political or financial status, or similar. It seeks to serve all.
The Department for Education defines British Values as follows:
Respect for democracy and support or participation in the democratic process
Respect for the basis on which the law is made and applies in England
Support for equality of opportunity for all
Support and respect for the liberties of all within the law
Respect for and tolerance of different faiths and religious and other beliefs
At Portway Infant School, we actively promote British values in the following ways:
Democracy
Children are elected onto both the school council and the eco council, and the election and voting process are explicitly taught each year as part of this commitment to developing children’s understanding of democracy. All children are encouraged to apply to be a councillor and, once elected, are supported to make a meaningful contribution to the running of the school.
Adults teach the children that they have the right to be heard, and activities such as circle time offer children the chance to share their opinions and explain their views, while developing their own concept of fair/unfair.
Children are introduced to the idea of collective reward, and are actively involved in choosing the reward as a class. This is used as a further reinforcement of the democratic process.
All children have the opportunity to have their voices heard through pupil interviews. These are used by subject leads to explore the impact of the curriculum from the children’s perspective; they are also used by senior leaders and governors to gather pupil voice in a range of situations, including safeguarding.
The Rule of Law
All children are introduced to the Portway Code, which are a set of rules integral to our learning and ethos.
School rules and expectations are clear, fair, and regularly promoted. On a class level, children are actively involved in developing simple rules to create their ‘class promise’. Through this, they are taught the value and reasons behind rules, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when rules are broken. Assemblies throughout the year reinforce the importance of laws, whether they be those that govern a class, the school or the country.
Children are supported to develop their understanding of right and wrong, fair and unfair, in the classroom and on the playground.
Our assemblies often support children to develop a deeper understanding of their rights and the responsibilities that go alongside these.
Children are encouraged to respect the law and Portway Infant School enjoys visits from authorities such as the Police and Fire Service to help reinforce this message.
The Nurture Programme in Year R is used to support our youngest children to understand choices and consequences
Individual Liberty
Within school pupils are actively encouraged, and given the freedom, to make choices wherever possible. This could be through signing up for clubs, nominating themselves as school councillors, or even by learning to make choices through their play.
Children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are advised how to exercise these safely, for example through our assemblies, e-safety and PSHE teaching.
Children are also taught that choices they make can have both good and not so good consequences as part of the PSHE curriculum.
Mutual Respect and Tolerance
Respect is a core value of our school. Pupils know and understand that it is expected that respect is shown to everyone, adults and children.
Children and staff are encouraged to challenge prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour or language. There is a strong culture of reporting such incidents which are followed up by our safeguarding team.
Through the PSHE and RE curriculums children are encouraged to discuss and respect differences between people such as those of faith, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexuality and the concept of all families being different is embedded throughout the school.
We offer a culturally rich and diverse curriculum in which major religions are studied and cultures are considered through our Geography curriculum.
Respect for those of different faiths and beliefs is achieved through enhancing pupils’ understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society and by providing opportunities to experience such diversity.
Group work is used routinely in classes and children are explicitly taught how to work as part of a team, make collective decisions and listen to one another.
The building of strong relationships within the class and school is key to developing mutual respect and tolerance; this is a focus throughout the school, and is supported by our active engagement with the Thrive programme.
Should you feel that the school is not meeting this requirement, you should contact the school office and request to express your concerns to the Headteacher.