British Values

British Values at Ormiston NEW Academy

At Ormiston NEW Academy we take very seriously our responsibility to prepare our students for life in modern Britain. We ensure that the fundamental British Values are introduced, discussed, taught and lived out through our Academy. All curriculum areas provide a vehicle for furthering student’s understanding of these concepts and, in particular, our PSHE and Tutor curriculum provides excellent opportunities to deepen and develop understanding of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and mutual respect.

Students embrace these concepts with enthusiasm and demonstrate a good understanding of their application to their own lives. The Academy makes considerable efforts to ensure students have exposure to a wide range of experiences beyond the school environment during which these concepts are reinforced.

The Government set out its definition of British values in the Prevent Strategy (Home Office, 2011) and subsequently The Prevent Duty: Departmental Advice for Schools and Childcare Providers (DfE 2015). It stated that:

“Schools and childcare providers can … build pupils’ resilience to radicalisation by promoting fundamental British values and enabling them to challenge extremist views. It is important to emphasise that the Prevent duty is not intended to stop pupils debating controversial issues. On the contrary, schools should provide a safe space in which children, young people and staff can understand the risks associated with terrorism and develop the knowledge and skills to be able to challenge extremist arguments” (DfE, 2015 p5.)

The examples that follow are an indication of some of the many ways we seek to embed British values at Ormiston NEW Academy:
  • All of our students have two 25-minute lessons of PHSE week where these values, along with other PSHE topics are explored, embedded and re-visited. All students study a bespoke unit on British values and cover the values when studying other topics such as politics, family, respect, working together and social responsibility. These sessions include several assemblies led by topic specialist from within and outside of the Academy.
  • Our students are organised into three houses whose mottos link directly into British values, within these houses’ students are taught a sense of democracy when voting for representatives to take part in events and when voting for winners of competitions. The students’ involvement in house activities ensure they have full engagement in school life and a keen sense of awareness around social responsibility.
  • We have several scheduled ‘awareness’ weeks where students are given a deeper understanding of both local and national issues.
  • We hold weekly assemblies with Academy leaders or Heads of Year where many of the British values are addressed and re-addressed.
  • All our students’ study RE (also known as Philosophy and Ethics) in KS3, with an increasing number of students taking the subject for GCSE and A-Level study.
  • The school is involved in several charity events throughout the year, including events for the named house charities.