British Values
Throughout the school we promote the values of tolerance, respect and responsibilities amongst others, helping to prepare our children for life in modern Britain. On this page you can read more about some of the ways we do this.
Tolerance of Other Faiths and Beliefs
We have close links to the local churches and have daily Collective Worships, which explain Christian festivals as well as significant events in the years of other faiths. We regularly support charities and people in need - including the Dales Centre in Bedale, The Millings Care Home and communities afar such as in India, through the Friends of Mettupalayam. We promote the understanding of other faiths and beliefs throughout the curriculum from dedicated RE lessons through Geography, History and multicultural stories through English lessons. Through the support of the school council and the use of voting, we decide which charities to support.
Spiritual Garden
Our school was very fortunate to receive funding to create a Spiritual garden; working together we planned and developed this area. We collected ideas from across school, created a design, and then used this to build a garden to suit the needs of our school community. We then held a grand opening.
Children have access to the garden at playtimes, and lunchtimes as well as during lesson times, allowing pupils of all faiths and none to have a quiet area to reflect. This is an important part of ensuring that the spiritual and emotional aspect of our school life is embraced, valued, and developed.
Mettupalayam
For over twenty years now, we have had links with Mettupalayam in India through the Friends of Mettupalayam Trust (click here for their Facebook page), raising money for development projects such as building a new school and buying resources to support the community. We have raised lots of money over the years for the projects. In previous years, members of staff have visited India as well as having guests from the village here in Bedale to see our school.
We continue to receive newsletters from the charity on a regular basis, these tell us more about current events; meanwhile in school we continue to think of other ways that we can support their ongoing work. On a termly basis, we have an update in Collective Worship and enjoy opportunities to welcome visits from the Friends of Mettupalayam.
When Mrs Eldridge comes to visit school, she tells us more about the most recent work taking place in Mettupalayam and also answer lots of questions. During her visits she shares photographs of the work that is going on and explains the projects and the impact that they have had. We have also seen examples of typical Indian dress during these visits. We always find it interesting to develop our understanding of the work being done in Mettupalayam and also more about life in a different culture to our own.
In the past we have raised money and made resources to be used in Mettupalayam. One such item was an interactive play mat. We have received a number of photographs showing how grateful the children and staff were for this resource and demonstrating how they will be able to use it.
We are so fortunate to have Mrs Eldridge regularly come into school to talk to each year group about Mettupalayam. The children enjoy listening to Mrs Eldridge share her experiences, photographs and objects from Mettupalayam.
Year 1 and EYFS were excited to welcome Mrs Eldridge to talk about Mettupalayam. We thought about what it would be like to live in India, we also compared our school to the one in Mettupalayam. All the children were so surprised when Mrs Eldridge told them the school has a cow and they drink the cows milk at snack time. The children enjoyed looking at the different photographs of the village and inside of their school and loved trying on the traditional clothing.
Mrs Eldridge led a Collective Worship, where she gave us an update on what has been happening in Mettupalayam over the last few months, including a Christmas party, flooding and Diwali.
Individual Responsibility and Liberty
We give our pupils a range of responsibilities and jobs around school from personal responsibilities like completing homework, bringing in reading books and PE kits through to classroom responsibilities and whole-school responsibilities like helping with school dinners and our KS2 children helping the children on our KS1 playground. Our Key Stage Two children apply for positions of responsibility within school such as book monitors, corridor monitors and Early Years mentors. We also have a well-established house system (with termly rewards for the house with the most merits) with house captains, as well as sports captains and heads of school. The house captains lead house worship sessions while the sports captains are involved in selecting and coaching sports teams taking part in inter-school tournaments. Each class has two school council representatives, with our Year Six pupils working alongside teachers to run the school council. We also have peer mentors who help other children with the support of staff and our digital leaders have helped support teachers in their lessons as well as leading Collective Worship and sessions for pupils in other year groups, such as during Safer Internet Day. Our reading ambassadors have also led Collective Worship for the school, sharing books and promoting their own love of reading across the school. We have developed the contribution and opportunities for children to lead Collective Worship. When a theme or event, either in school or within our community, has inspired our pupils we offer them opportunities to share their interest and work by taking and Collective Worship. Where appropriate they are then offered chance to lead further future worships to update the school community on their continued work.
Throughout the year, we encourage the children to use the local facilities and get involved in local activities, including promoting sports events and courses (e.g. Wensleydale Rugby, Bedale Juniors Football Club, Bedale Cricket Club, Bedale Tennis Club). Every year group visits Bedale library once during the academic year; this has enabled many more children to become members and they continue to use the facility on a regular basis.
The pupils in Year Six work independently to organise and lead our annual Fun Run including dozens of stalls positioned around our school field - raising money for charity. This is an annual event that everyone looks forward to every year!
We are very keen to look after our local community and keep it looking spick and span; our school council organises a monthly litter pick in which the number of children and parents volunteering to help have increased steadily over the years.
Our Global Awareness Club, now called Eco Warriors, meets weekly and since September 2021, have looked at a number of local, national and global charities to support. After having a visit from Hambleton Foodshare, the group collected lots of food and donated it to Bedale’s foodbank in town. Another project they have been involved in was linked to the Knit A Square Charity, although they found knitting a bit tricky, the children involved managed to all knit a square which were then combined to make a blanket to help keep children in Africa warmer at night. When the Ukraine crisis hit, the group organised a sponsored fun run and fitness session to raise money to donate to the British Red Cross who are helping people in the war-torn country. They shared all their ideas and hard work with the other children in the school when they presented their projects in collective worship.
Mutual Respect
At Bedale Primary, mutual respect is promoted through everything we do both in and out of school. From Early Years to Year 6, we ensure all the children learn about how we should treat each other; this is deeply embedded particularly through our PSHE and RE curriculum but is also evident in all lessons and daily activities. All staff in the school act as excellent role models; the consistent approach and high expectations for behaviour is implemented by all. Each classroom has our school’s five golden rules for great behaviour displayed and they are referred to regularly to remind the children of the high expectations. We warmly welcome visitors to our school and take the opportunity to ask them relevant questions in a respectful manner e.g. PCSOs when they discuss online safety with us; clergy members during our Collective Worship; ‘When I Grow Up’ careers presentations and parents/carers who attend our year group workshops to find out about what we have been learning in school. When the children represent the school on educational visits and at sporting events, they are often complimented on their superb behaviour by members of the public. We are all very proud of our lovely manners.
Rule of Law
We have visits from our local PCSOs as well as North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service to discuss ways of staying safe outside school, online safety and other aspects of the law. Our Year Six pupils also attend Crucial Crew each year and have the opportunity to take part in Bikeability training to help them understand the rules of the road. Even our youngest children in the school learn about how to be safe – they loved taking part in Scooter Day earlier in the year; this included how to keep safe whilst using their scooters.
We also discuss how the rules in school relate to rules and laws in the wider-world, including the importance of following and the consequences for breaking these laws. Our units of work in our PSHE sessions (Becoming An Active Citizen and Me and My Future) help greatly with our understanding of these laws.
Each class follows the school rules and have their own "Class Charter" of rules, created and agreed by the children at the start of the year, which are displayed in every room.
Democracy
In school we have a ‘Bedale Ballot Box’ that the children can use to vote at various points during the year such as choosing what films are shown at Film Night. We also discuss local and national elections and what they mean for the way the country is run. Each class also votes for their school council representatives and pupils vote for next year's heads of school. Classes discuss issues they would like their school council representative to raise at school council meetings and have a say in decisions around the school, including which charity we should raise money for and improvements to the environment.
Pupils are able to complete surveys and take part in pupil voice sessions in which they can give their thoughts on a range of subjects within school, such as: clubs on offer, sports available, feeling safe, lunchtimes and the curriculum.
