Little Blues Nursery School
Burnham Football Club, Wymers Wood Road, Burnham, Bucks. SL1 8JG
E mail: emma568@btinternet.com
Tel:07917 808618
Policy Statement
Fundamental British Values in the Early Years
At Little Blues Nursery School, teaching British values means providing a curriculum which
actively promote(s) the Fundamental British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual
liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.
Teaching the children British values is embedded in everything we do. Britain has undergone
rapid economic and social change in the last few decades and we live in an increasingly
diverse society. We endeavour to teach our children that it is possible to live together
peacefully, each of them a valuable part of our multicultural world.
Democracy: making decisions together
As part of the focus on self-confidence and self-awareness as cited in Personal, Social and
Emotional Development:
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Managers and staff can encourage children to see their role in the bigger picture,
encouraging children to know their views count, value each other’s views and values
and talk about their feelings, for example when they do or do not need help. When
appropriate demonstrate democracy in action, for example, children sharing views on
what the theme of their role play area could be with a show of hands.
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Staff can support the decisions that children make and provide activities that involve
turn-taking, sharing and collaboration. Children should be given opportunities to
develop enquiring minds in an atmosphere where questions are valued.
Promoting democracy – everyone has a voice and is listened to;
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We have a Children’s questionnaire, children can tell us what they like at nursery and
what they would like more/less of.
In group times we listen to their ideas and implement them in the planning.
Whiteboard – record what they like/dislike with a smiley/sad face.
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We use Jenny Moselys Golden Rules, in group times we discuss the rules and our
feelings.
Action: Create a folder with their ideas, dated
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Using thoughtful questions and comments we encourage children to listen to each
others ideas and work together as a team.
We use timers to help the children take turns and share.
• We teach children to work together – we provide them with projects that involve
everyone in the provision and we plan group times, where children learn to listen, take
turns and value contributions from others. This type of planning is a very important part
of British values = teaching about shared values and working together towards a
common goals.
Rule of law: understanding rules matter as cited in Personal Social and Emotional
development
As part of the focus on managing feelings and behaviour:
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Staff can ensure that children understand their own and others’ behaviour and its
consequences, and learn to distinguish right from wrong.
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Staff can collaborate with children to create the rules and the codes of behaviour, for
example, to agree the rules about tidying up and ensure that all children understand
rules apply to everyone.
Promoting the rule of law – teaching children right wrong (including the police in a ‘people
who help us’ theme.)
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We teach the children “The Golden Rules” using books, puppets and reward stickers.
We focus on 1 rule at a time and tell the story, as we see the children displaying
positive behaviour we reward with special stickers.
Little Blues Nursery Rules – We are Kind, Helpful and Gentle, We use quiet voices
Inside, We use walking feet inside, We listen to others and We are polite.
Using PALS programme the children learn to talk about their feelings and manage
their behaviour, they make up their own rules for group time and we have a Cool
Down Corner, a place to go when we feel angry.
Tidy up time: We use a special piece of music (which the children can choose) to
indicate tidy up time, we teach the children the importance of all working together
to get the job done! What’s going to work....Teamwork!!!
Individual liberty: freedom for all
As part of the focus on self-confidence & self-awareness and people & communities as cited
in Personal Social and Emotional development and Understanding the World:
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Children should develop a positive sense of themselves. Staff can provide
opportunities for children to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and increase
their confidence in their own abilities, for example through allowing children to take
risks on an obstacle course, mixing colours, talking about their experiences and
learning.
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Staff should encourage a range of experiences that allow children to explore the
language of feelings and responsibility, reflect on their differences and understand
we are free to have different opinions, for example in a small group discuss what
they feel about transferring into Reception Class.
Promoting Individual Liberty: teaching children to have a positive self-image, be confident
in themselves, their ideas and abilities.
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We use PALS programme to help promote and nurture confidence and self-esteem.
We use positive strategies to encourage good behaviour, stickers, WOW moments,
comment on how proud we are of their achievements.
We support the children to try challenges and take well managed risks, encourage
them to feel proud of their achievements.
In group times we talk about what we have enjoyed.
In group times we talk about our feelings and plan activities to help children name
and recognise them.
We include planned activities to allow children to develop self knowledge eg All
About Me where they can explore how we look, similarities and differences.
• We teach the children about compromise – that some of us believe one thing, some
of us believe something totally different, but we can all play together in the same group
setting and respect each other.
Mutual respect and tolerance: treat others as you want to be treated
As part of the focus on people & communities, managing feelings & behaviour and making
relationships as cited in Personal Social and Emotional development and Understanding the
World:
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Managers and leaders should create an ethos of inclusivity and tolerance where views,
faiths, cultures and races are valued and children are engaged with the wider
community.
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Children should acquire a tolerance and appreciation of and respect for their own and
other cultures; know about similarities and differences between themselves and others
and among families, faiths, communities, cultures and traditions and share and
discuss practices, celebrations and experiences.
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Staff should encourage and explain the importance of tolerant behaviours such as
sharing and respecting other’s opinions.
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Staffs should promote diverse attitudes and challenge stereotypes, for example,
sharing stories that reflect and value the diversity of children’s experiences and
providing resources and activities that challenge gender, cultural and racial
stereotyping.
Promoting mutual respect and tolerance - ensuring children have the right to say ‘no’ and
be respected for their choices; including world religions and festivals in our planning to
teach children about the world in which they live; linking children’s learning so they
understand they are part of a much wider world; displaying posters and reading books
which show world religions and cultures, blended families, disability, equality of opportunity
We teach children to be kind, helpful and respectful of others; we model how to share
opinions and be respectful of others through sensitive reminders.
• We teach children about the world around them and use the seasons, weather, food,
music, and special days to plan meaningful learning experiences;
• We teach children to be part of their local community and we visit the Library, shops and
local attractions.
• We plan to celebrate festivals and mark special days from the world around us;
• We teach children about the world in which they live – the world on their doorstep and
the wider world – through books, posters, planned activities, resources, outings and much
more;
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We celebrate special multicultural days from our local community and the wider
world.
We use our special Comfort books, toys and displays to learn about each other’s
families and traditions. We invite our families in to share food, stories, music and
ideas with us.
We invite parents to volunteer and tell us about Family celebrations; Birthdays,
Weddings, New Babies, Christenings.
We plan to provide resources, experiences and activities that are available to all
children regardless of gender or cultural background. We encourage all the children
to take part in all activities that interest them. We aim to provide a variety that
reflects the diversity of the community in which we live.
A minimum approach, for example having notices on the walls or multi-faith books on the
shelves will fall short of ‘actively promoting’.
What is not acceptable is:
• actively promoting intolerance of other faiths, cultures and races
• failure to challenge gender stereotypes and routinely segregate girls and boys
• isolating children from their wider community
• failure to challenge behaviours (whether of staff, children or parents) that are not in
line with the fundamental British values of democracy, rule of law, individual liberty,
mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs
Promoting British values in your setting:
Whilst endless planning and paperwork isn’t needed it is important to be aware of how you
already or might start to promote British values in your setting to show Ofsted should you
be asked about this. These might include:
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Celebrating and marking British occasions and festivals (see the list below)
Teaching children to listen to each other and wait before speaking, how to have a
conversation
Kindness, helpful, respectful of others
Table manners
Learning about our heritage and history
Being polite, saying please and thank you
Listening during story and song time
Teaching empathy and understanding
Appropriate behaviour and learning right from wrong
Taking turns and sharing
Learning British weather and seasons
Being part of local community through outings and partnerships with local schools,
nurseries etc
Making friends and friendship
Tolerating others and mutual respect
Cooking, eating and learning about traditional British food
Celebrating british authors and illustrators
British Festivals and Celebrations
Below are some of the festivals, celebrations and special dates we celebrate in Britain and are
great to share with young children by doing activities with them to mark the occasion.
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Burns Night
Valentines Day
Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Day
St David’s Day (Wales)
St Piran’s Day
St Patrick’s Day (N. Ireland)
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Mother’s Day
Lent
April Fools Day
Easter Weekend
St George’s Day (England)
Fathers Day
Queens Birthday
Summer Solstice
Wimbledon
Notting Hill Carnival
Halloween
Bonfire Night
Remembrance Day
Harvest Festival
St Andrew’s Day (Scotland)
Christmas Day
Boxing Day