The Department for Education (DfE) introduced a statutory duty for schools to promote British Values more actively from September 2014, and to ensure these values are taught in schools.
Flegg High Ormiston Academy understands and embraces our role in serving our community. We recognise the multi-cultural, multi-faith and ever-changing nature of the United Kingdom. We have an important role in ensuring that groups or individuals within our academy are not subjected to intimidation, bullying or radicalisation by those wishing to unduly, or illegally, influence them.
We promote equal opportunities which guarantees that there will be no discrimination against any individual or group, regardless of faith, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, political or financial status, or similar. At Flegg High, we are dedicated to preparing students for their adult life beyond the formal, examined curriculum, and learning about and understanding British Values supports students to do this.
The government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy.
The five key British Values are:
We use strategies within and beyond the curriculum to secure such understanding for students. The examples that follow show some of the many ways Flegg High Ormiston Academy seeks to embed British Values within the student experience.
Democracy
Students are given the opportunity experience democracy within school life, and learn about its role in wider society for example through student leadership and through taking part in the elections for the Youth Parliament.
Tutor time encompasses the Flegg Votes programme, in which students learn about a wide range of topical issues and ultimately vote on a key question linked to the issue.
The rule of law
Behaviour expectations and the rules that accompany them in addition to our rewards system at the Academy allow student to experience adherence elements of laws daily.
The assembly rota for our academy has a wide range of links to the rule of law. A range of topics link to this element of British Values, including extremism, crime, e-safety, road safety and other examples.
Within the curriculum there are many examples of units that link to law, and the table below demonstrates some of these links.
| Curriculum Area | Links to the Rule of Law |
| English | Units / texts that link to crime, tolerance and abuse of power |
| RE & PSHE | Laws related to marriage Extremism / British Values SRE – Images, consent |
| Geography | Laws linked to the environment (eg pollution) Exploitation of workers – employment law |
| Computer Science | E-crime and law related to use of data Online Safety |
Individual liberty
The way the Student Leadership Team works at Flegg High Ormiston Academy has recently been reviewed and new plans focus on developing a Student Council which is a part of the academy but also of an OAT National Student Council. The Academy has a Peer Mentoring scheme, and students can seek support from their peers for low level concerns, such as friendship issues.
Student surveys are used to gauge views on a various aspects of life at the Academy and outside of it, and these are used to shape our approaches as appropriate. We promote a message of tolerance through our day to day interactions, assemblies and displays around the academy amongst other approaches.
Students are given opportunities to shape their own learning experience through individual choices they make. The options process allows them to choose which KS4 courses they wish to study at the start of year 9. We offer a wide range of extra-curricular and enrichment activities that are open to students who wish to participate.
Mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs
Respect of each other and the school environment is one of the academy’s basic expectations for students, as is politeness. We use the mantra “manners matter and kindness counts”. This is set out in a clear manner in our behaviour policy and is something we look to embed within the academy at every opportunity. Various areas of the curriculum provide further opportunities to develop student understanding of respect, and examples include respect for competitors in PE and aspects of human rights explored in RE/PSHE and through Flegg Votes in form time.
Extra-curricular and enrichment opportunities frequently take place in contexts where mutual respect within the academy and wider community are required. Sports teams who participate in regular fixtures are expected to show respect for team mates and opposition at all times. There are a variety of roles in the academy where responsible and respectful manner is vital, examples being our student leadership team, student ambassadors (changed on a daily basis) and our events team, who represent respectful values during a host of community events.
Deeper understanding of religious beliefs and of cultural diversity is explored as part of the humanities curriculum – RE, Geography and History. A key feature is developing tolerance and understanding of differences in their widest sense, something we also cover in assemblies and school visits.