Democracy
We teach democracy by giving our children opportunities to make decisions about our school. We hold competitions, use questionnaires and give pupils time to voice their opinions and vote on ideas. We run extra-curricular clubs such as athletics, School Council (introduced in September 2022), EAL reading club, early morning reading club and after school club.
Rule of Law
We teach the rule of law by contextualising it to our school. We have high expectations of behaviour and our children follow our mission statement; ‘At St Augustine’s we strive to love and serve God in all we do.’ Our children know if a rule is broken there is a consequence (please see our Behaviour Policy for more info) much like if you break a law. We are attachment aware and informed and use emotions coaching to support children if they make the wrong choice.
Individual Liberty
We teach individual liberty by explaining it is freedom of choice. Our children get many opportunities to make choices for themselves every day. In Early Years children make these choices through continuous provision. In KS1 and KS2 our children choose what they eat at lunch time, what activities they do at break time, through a choice of equipment and who their friends are. We have representatives across school to support our teachings of this: St Augustine’s school council, our wellbeing ambassadors, our school chaplaincy team and buddy system!
Mutual Respect
We teach mutual respect by listening to others. We do this during assemblies, circle times and class discussions. We use talk partners, turn taking and game teams as opportunities to develop skills in this area such as communication and zones of regulation. We demonstrate this through being awarded our Gospel Values badges; Service, Forgiveness, Courage, Justice, Compassion and Hope. We use Voice 21 to develop and teach oracy skills, this is integral to all we do.
Tolerance
Finally, we teach tolerance of beliefs and values through following our PSHE programme of learning ‘Tenten’ and our RE programme of learning ‘Come and See.’ We do this through celebrating a range of cultures, ceremonies and events and by teaching alternative faiths as part of our ambitious curriculum.
