British Values & Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Promoting Fundamental British Values at Bowker Vale

In accordance with The Department for Education we aim to actively promote British values in school to ensure young people leave us prepared for life in modern Britain.

Pupils are encouraged to regard people of all faiths, races and cultures with respect and tolerance and understand that while different people may hold different views about what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, all people living in England are subject to its law.

The Key Values are:

  • Democracy

  • Rule of law

  • Individual liberty

  • Mutual respect

  • Tolerance

We help children to remember the British Values through the thumb and finger model:

Thumb – Democracy – up or down to give opinion.

Index finger – Rule of Law – pointing.

Middle finger – Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs – tallest finger pointing to God.

Ring Finger – Mutual respect – wedding ring – respect for other people.

Little finger – Individual Liberty – sticks out on its own.

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Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Equality - equal opportunities for all

Diversity - differences and similarities celebrated

Inclusion - involved, valued, welcomed and safe

At Bowker Vale, we are committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for all pupils, staff, parents and carers irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race and culture, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation (the protected characteristics).

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The Equality Act 2010 requires schools to publish information to show how we are working to:

  • Eliminate discrimination

  • Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristicand people who do not share it

  • Foster good relations between groups of people

To ensure children at our school understand the protected characteristics – the language which we focus on in our primary school is:

  • Disability Equality

  • Gender Equality

  • Different Families Equality

  • Race Equality

  • Religion and Belief Equality

  • Sexual Orientation

Other groups of pupils we believe it is also important to consider are:

  • Children Looked After/ children who were previously looked-after

  • Young carers

  • Pupils eligible for free school meals or living in poverty

This information forms part of our published information and is designed to show what will be most useful and important to our families.

At Bowker Vale we strive to treat each member of our community as an individual; to make each individual feel valued and to teach our pupils to do the same. Trying to achieve this for all our pupils involves us learning what we all have in common as well as celebrating our many differences. We recognise that children learn best in an environment where everyone feels safe, valued, and welcome in an inclusive way. We believe everyone has the same rights but have individual needs and it is vital to ensure that all aspects of school life are ‘fair’ and appropriate and not necessarily always the same for everyone.

We teach the children about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion embedded throughout the curriculum, through regular opportunities in assembly, during educational visits, with visitors and we aim to reflect these values in our day to day interactions with the children.

We teach children about insults and suitable language and the impact of prejudicial language. We make every effort to make our playgrounds safe and enjoyable places to be. We place a high priority on regular training of staff in areas such as first aid and positive handling techniques. We value our ‘Pupil Voice’ input and their views and opinions are regularly sought in a variety of ways, including using our pupil leader group (the Bowker Leaders) with Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do.