Values
At Stowting Primary School we strive for personal and academic excellence for everyone, every day. We work together to prepare children for a successful future in the real world. We help our children grow into adaptable, confident young people who are resilient, independent learners with enquiring minds and a ‘can do’ attitude, coupled with humility and kindness as promoted through our Christian Values of Peace, Thankfulness, Friendship, Forgiveness and Trust.
Ethos
Our school has an atmosphere of purpose and is alive with learning. It is a place where the confidence and self-esteem of our children have high status, where children are excited by learning and develop understanding of themselves as learners. We are a caring community, intending every child to be happy and successful in our school. If there’s a problem, we never ignore it – whether it’s a child who is upset or a bag left lying in the corridor. We role model our expectations to children as they learn excellent manners and positive conduct from the adults that surround them. Children come to our school to be happy and successful. They will leave us as confident, self-assured, positive young people who love to learn, to contribute to our community and to achieve great things.
British Values
At Stowting Church of England School, we have a strong Christian ethos and encourage children to live their lives through the values of Peace, Trust, Friendship, Thankfulness and Forgiveness. These values will enable them to grow into strong spiritual and moral individuals with a firm sense of right and wrong.
Opportunities for our children's Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development are interwoven throughout the curriculum. We take seriously our responsibility to ensure that our children see themselves as young citizens who live by the British Values of:
- Democracy
- The rule of law
- Individual liberty
- Mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs, and for those without faith
The Government initially set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy. The DFE instructs us to “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.” At Stowting, British Values are reinforced regularly and in the following ways are woven into our children’s teaching.
Democracy
Stowting is a truly democratic school. Children have many opportunities for their voices to be heard. We have a school council which meets regularly to discuss issues raised in school. The council is able to genuinely effect change within the school; in fact, it decides the annual charity the school supports and has recently voted on the changes to the school anti-bullying & behaviour policies. Two school council members for each year group are voted in by their class after they have addressed the voters to promote their case. Each year the children decide upon their own class rules / charter and the rights associated with these. All the children contribute to the drawing up of the charter and vote on which rules to include.
Pupil voice is regularly sought by, and acted upon by the Headteacher and staff.
The Rule of Law
The importance of Laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout the school day, as well as when dealing with behaviour and through school Collective Worship. Pupils are taught the value and reasons behind laws, which are there to govern and also protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken. At Stowting, participation in this is actively encouraged - in the past, Stowting pupils have persuasively lobbied Shepway Council, resulting in a successful change to Shepway policy on grass verge planting to favour pollen gathering insects. Adults in school are also bound by the same rules and laws as the children, modelling good practice as well as explaining it. As a Church School, children are shown early on that all laws in the United Kingdom actually have their roots in the Ten Commandments.
Individual Liberty
Within school, pupils are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school we teach the value of and provide boundaries for pupils to make choices safely. Pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are advised how to do this safely, for example through our Kent Police led E-Safety days. Whether it is through the choice of learning, or participation in our numerous extra-curricular clubs, pupils are constantly given the freedom to make choices.
Mutual Respect
As a Church School, mutual respect is at the heart of our Christian Values. Children learn that their behaviours have an effect on their own rights and those of others. We promote the value of the individual and individuality. All members of the school community treat each other with respect; this applies to adults as well as children. We may not always agree with another’s opinion, but we know that we should respect this. We have weekly certificate presentations for those who have demonstrated attributes of good citizenship.