British Values at Hatfield Peverel Infant and Nursery School

All schools have a requirement set out in section 78 of the Education Act 2002 to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of their pupils. Through ensuring pupils’ SMSC development, schools can also demonstrate they are actively promoting fundamental British values.

 The Government set out their definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy; these were reinforced in September 2014. These new regulations must also run parallel with the requirements of the Equalities Acts. Pupils must be encouraged to regard people of all faiths, races and cultures with respect and tolerance. Schools are expected to focus on, and to be able to show, how we are successfully educating pupils in embedding fundamental British values.

The Department for Education sets out a five-part definition of British Values including:

• Democracy
• The rule of law
• Individual Liberty
• Mutual Respect
• Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs

Please click below to see how we promote SMSC and British Values in EYFS and Key Stage One.

We promote these every day in school through our school values and in our assemblies. Every week, EYFS and KS1 have a special class assembly where they discuss what is going on around the world. We use a fabulous resource – ‘Picture News’ – to help us learn about current affairs and important issues. Each week, a powerful image and a “Big Question” are used as a starting point for discussion. This encourages children to talk about the news and how it relates to the British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance. The theme of the week is sent home each week for families to discuss. Below you will find links to the coverage for 2025-2026.

Our wonderful school council is made up of enthusiastic and democratically elected representatives from across the school. The school council meet regularly to share their ideas and views and make plans for future projects. The school council work focusses on different British Values e.g., the children are given opportunities to vote on issues to improve our school environment.  In 2025-2026, the school council supported a lot of initiatives in school including the development of the school playground provision at lunch times, designing a new playground game competition, gathering views from classes for pupil voice on a variety of topics, and especially organising Careers Week in July 2026. A wonderful event that we will be repeating every year due to its success.