British Values

St Mary’s is a Catholic School which strives to live out the Gospel Values and live by Jesus’ example.

As a Catholic school, not only are we fully committed to the values contained within the Gospels, but also modern British values which are fundamentally linked and interwoven.  In 2011, the government defined British Values as democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. 

We proudly promote these same values through our curriculum. This recognises every pupil is unique and created in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27) Our framework for understanding British Values draws on the example of Jesus and his inclusion of all, which is the basis of Catholic Social Teaching.

The Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC) as advocated by the Department for Education seeks to:

• Enable children to develop self-knowledge
• Enable children to distinguish between right and wrong
• Encourage children to accept responsibility for their behaviour, and understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those in their locality and to society more widely
• Further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions
• Encourage respect for other people.[1]

At St Mary’s we demonstrate this in our teaching and learning. Our curriculum is designed to enable every pupil to be the best that they can be and to emerge as positive, active citizens in our world.

[1] See https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-fundamental-british-values-through-smsc.

The following table shows some of the ways in which we strive to meet these goals in our school every day: