“We celebrate British Values in practice and ensure that we embrace our citizenship and the diverse culture we are so lucky to be a part of.”

Statement of British Values

The Fundamental British Value are:

• Democracy
• the rule of law
• individual liberty
• mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those without faith.

We teach these values through all of our activities and conversations in the nursery. Below are just some of the ways we foster British Values at Perry Beeches Nursery School.

Our Nursery children are often given opportunities to experience Democracy through simple experiences such as voting for which story book they would like to hear read at story time, songs they would like to sing, or which resources they would like out in a certain area. Staff actively encourage children to respect each other’s decisions and discuss how children feel when the activity or story they would like isn’t chosen for that session. If there are some children that cannot verbally communicate well, we use picture cards.
• Turn-taking – this is done in a variety of ways through games, group activities and times when there are limited resources.
• Emotions – we help children to identify their emotions and talk about reasons for these emotions.  Emotions cards are also used in our setting so that children that cannot verbalise their feelings can still share them, and staff can convey their emotions to children also. Identifying emotions is an important step in children being able to manage their emotions and self-regulation.

We teach children about Mutual respect and tolerance for others, helping them to understand that this means treating other people how you would like to be treated and learning to understand and appreciate each other’s differences, without allowing those differences to cause a change in the treatment of any sort.

It’s about being a part of a community where not everyone is the same and forming relationships within a community without discrimination. Perry Beeches is an inclusive, respectful environment which values all faiths, cultures and races.

To help promote mutual respect, we focus on behaviour such as sharing and respecting others’ opinions, within our Nursery school there are many opportunities for our skilled practitioners to encourage and develop this. Some examples include:

• Encouraging children to share stories of their home that reflect the values and the diversity of their experiences.
• Provide resources and activities that challenge gender, cultural and racial stereotyping.

It’s not just about having different diverse resources in our school, it’s about actively promoting respect and tolerance.
We work to ensure that children understand their own and others’ behaviour and its consequences and help them to distinguish right from wrong by promoting ‘the rule of law’.

Some examples of how we promote the rule of law include: 

• Working with the children to create rules and codes of behaviour, such as agreeing on rules about tidying up, and also ensuring children understand that the rules apply to everyone.
• Try and help children to understand their actions and the consequences. For example, by explaining to them how something they have done might have made another child feel instead of just asking them to say ‘sorry’.

Finally, individual liberty requires children to understand and value their own self and to gain confidence in making choices. Self-esteem, self-confidence and self-awareness are key.

Ways in which we promote individual liberty at Perry Beeches include:

• Providing opportunities for risk-taking such as obstacle courses for children to develop their self-knowledge, and self-esteem and increase their confidence in their own abilities.
• Encouraging a range of experiences that allow children to explore the language of feelings and responsibility, reflect on their differences and understand everyone is free to have different opinions.
• Allowing children lots of freedom within the continuous provision to choose for themselves which activities and opportunities they wish to take part in. This includes children choosing whether they are learning Indoors or Outdoors. This helps children to develop a positive sense of themselves and increases their confidence in their own abilities.
• Having group discussions about how the children may feel about the activities they did today or the story at storytime. Allowing them to voice their own feelings and understand that they are free to have different opinions.