Our Shared Values Statement

Our Community School

Howitt Primary Community School is committed to serving its community and surrounding areas. We recognise the multi-cultural, multi-faith nature of the United Kingdom and understand the crucial role our school plays in promoting these values.

Democracy

Democracy is an important value at our school.

Pupils have the opportunity to have their voices heard through our School Council. Elections of members are voted for in a traditional way. The council meetings allow children to debate topics of interest and express their views. Our children exercise their democratic rights by suggesting and /or creating activities for our school based fundraising events.

Children have an annual questionnaire with which they are able to put forward their views about school. The School Councillors play an active role in our whole school vision.

The Rule of Law

The importance of Laws, whether they are those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout school day.

School rules and expectations are clear and fair. Pupils are always helped to distinguish right from wrong, in the classroom, during assemblies, in the playground and outside in our community. Children are encouraged to respect the law and we enjoy visits from the Police, Fire Service and the NSPCC who help us to reinforce this message. Our spiral PSHE curriculum helps promote these laws too. The behaviour and Anti-Bullying policies set a zero tolerance baseline for any form of aggression, abuse or violence. This extends to pupils, staff, parents, carers and all stakeholders.

Individual Liberty

Pupils are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. Pupils have key roles and responsibilities in school e.g Peer Buddies, Peer Mentors, Sports and Digital Leaders. Children are able to show independence in their learning and to think for themselves. Pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms, for example through online safety and PSHE lessons.

Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

Our RE curriculum provides a broad and balanced education on a range of faiths, religions and cultures. We have a growing number of children from the wider community and actively use a variety of resources to promote their learning and integration into school and community life.

Children are encouraged to understand and respect their own identity and to be proud of who they are. Our school gives pupils the opportunity to discuss and respect differences between people, such as differences in faith, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexuality and also family situations. Children welcome visitors and visit places of worship that are important to different faiths.

Mutual Respect

All members of our school community treat each other with respect irrespective of their race, faith, gender or disability. Our whole school ethos embeds mutual respect in combination with our PSHE spiral curriculum. Mutual respect is a value learnt from an early age at our school and is re-emphasised in our peer buddy system. Children learn about topics linked to our British Values e.g Remembrance, Harvest and values for life.

We held a Remembrance assembly led by Y6 where they sang a song by Vera Lynn and showcased their poppy t-shirts. We were also lucky to be joined by Mr Field who shared his knowledge about WWI.