British Values

A place for everyone to grow and achieve

Sandbrook British Values Statement 

At Sandbrook we are committed to the Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural (SMSC) wellbeing of our children and staff. This is embedded in our curriculum and our everyday school life. We realise our duty to help children identify shared, core values and what matters most, alongside our responsibility to teach children to read, write and count.
The Religious Education curriculum (RE), Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) with the British Values and Citizenship lessons contribute to providing children with the opportunities to explore SMSC and the universal, human values which are highlighted within and alongside the British Values guidelines. The multicultural and multi-faith community of our school is celebrated and tolerance is taught in order to prepare children for life in Modern Britain. The Safety of all individuals is at the core of everything we do and our children are aware they are safe to express themselves without being discriminated, so long as they are not causing or wishing harm to others in any way.

Mutual Respect

Respectful schools are, by definition, democratically informed learning environments where people feel safe, supported, engaged, and helpfully challenged. Respect doesn't happen in isolation; at Sandbrook we know it's based in relationships. As we learn and teach, we are respectful in the context of our social, emotional, civic, and intellectual interactions. As a team we have worked together to create a sustainable, positive school climate. Children are engaged and respected. Children, families, teachers and all school staff work together to develop and contribute to a shared school vision. Our whole school ethos at Sandbrook is built around the word ‘Respect’. We teach the children to respect each other, respect the environment and respect themselves. Respect is modelled, taught, encouraged and celebrated throughout the school day. Respectful behaviour is rewarded through our class dojo points and reinforced through our Positive Behaviour Policy.

Democracy

At Sandbrook, our children are taught and participate in the democratic processes from Year 2 to Year 6, through the School Council. Representatives are selected through the fair process and use the platform to have their class voices heard to improve playtimes, organise events, help raise money for charities, work alongside outside agencies and simply have their views taken in to account. Debate club and debating opportunities in class, teach our children to develop oracy, to give views and opinions in a formal manner alongside listening to others with different views. Children have the opportunity to choose and then vote for class attendance rewards. The broad curriculum at Sandbrook has many opportunities to teach about the houses of parliament, how law has changed over time with regard to Crime and Punishment and overall the value of democracy. Each year our children vote for a Head Girl and Head Boy, who represent the children, their ideas and the school in the local community.

 The Rule of Law

The behaviour policy at Sandbrook supports the value that all people are subject and accountable to law that is fairly applied and enforced. Expectations for all children are extremely high, children behave respectfully towards everyone, respect their learning, respect their resources and show respect for the school and wider environment. There are opportunities within the curriculum to learn about the laws in Britain. E-Safety is taught along with acceptable behaviours online to keep children and their peers safe and free from harm. Visits from Police officers, PCO, councillors, local community members and politicians all help our children to understand that we all have a role to play in society and how the law is in place to keep us all safe in Britain.

 Celebrating and showing tolerance of different faiths and beliefs

At Sandbrook we are proud of the diversity at our school and the wonderful opportunities we have to celebrate special occasions and festivals to reflect this. From an early age our children are taught about how we are all different and all equal. All children learn about other faiths and cultures and learn to share their own beliefs with adults and peers who are respectful and tolerant. School assemblies, discussions in the classrooms and many curriculum areas offer the opportunity to explore the values of friendship, community, equality, freedom of choice and tolerance even through differences. Children learn that people have different faiths and beliefs, with tolerance promoted in all our areas of the curriculum.  Places of worship in the community are visited to enhance their experiences and understanding. Racism and any other form of hate crime is not accepted at Sandbrook. The children are taught that bullying is not tolerated in our caring school community and is always recorded, shared with Governors and dealt with according to the behaviour policy. We use every opportunity to ensure that our children learn and grow to be caring and tolerant of others they will meet and live alongside in multicultural Britain.

Individual Liberty

Each and every day at Sandbrook, all children are provided with a rich and varied curriculum to develop their knowledge, skills, self-esteem and confidence. The extensive choice of free, extra-curricular sports activities for all children  are designed to build resilience through challenge, take risks in a safe secure environment and further develop  skills and talent in order to shine and be the best of who they want to be. Our children regularly take part in competitions within the borough and are celebrated for doing so in assemblies and on our website. Adults at Sandbrook motivate and inspire at every opportunity, any children with talents such as singing, arts, music, debating are encouraged to join the choir, art or debating club. There are frequent competitions to enter for all who love art, poetry, dancing and writing along with the opportunity to have amazing work celebrated on displays around school. The maths lovers love to play maths games through our school memberships to Times Tables Rock Stars within school and at home. Teamwork skills are a key part of learning here, with independence and individual liberty championed in all classes too. At Sandbrook our children are encouraged to take pride of their work they produce and most importantly, be proud of who they are.

Children at Sandbrook have been part of The Peace Project with the 

Tim Parry and Jonathan Ball Peace Foundation.

Read about the programme below;

Our programme, ‘For Peace’, consists of a portfolio of projects, resources, and services. Our work has three core components: prevention, resolution, and response. In prevention we seek to stop violence before it starts, however when conflict does arise, we seek resolution through dialogue and actions to deal with issues without recourse to violence, and when violent conflict has already occurred, we are there to respond, to help those affected to cope and recover and, in many cases, to become active peace-builders and agents for change themselves. Our aim is to break the cycle of violence so our projects overlap and intersect, allowing our participants to learn from one another and play their role in achieving this.

Sandbrook children visited the Peace Centre in Warrington and received their 

Peace Ambassador awards ! Great Job and Well done !!