British Values.

Pupils at Watermill School are taught a wide range of values including those such as;

• The importance of the rule of law.
• Understanding what a democracy is.
• What liberty and freedom of speech are and why they are important.
• Why mutual respect between people of all beliefs and faiths are important.

Collectively, these values form the basis of what are often called "British values" and are an important part of the life of the school.

At Watermill School, we promote British values in a wide variety of ways, including, but not limited to;

• Curriculum subjects, such as Religious Education, Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) and in Physical Education where pupils learn the importance of following rules.
• Assemblies: Assemblies are planned to reflect themes which are chosen to coincide with UN National observances, world events, topical news stories or anniversaries of important historical significance. See our assembly calendar below.
• Pupil voice: Pupils nominate class representatives to the school council and, where appropriate, vote for their preferred candidate. The school council meet regularly and influence what happens in the school. The school council also regularly review and amend our school rules.
• Head Girl/Boy elections: Any member of Year11 is invited to run for the position of Head Boy or Head Girl. This process involves preparing and delivering an election speech to an assembly. The successful pupils, and their deputies represent the school at important events.
• Visits to the Council Chambers and chances to meet Local Councillors, Mayors and MP’s.
• Mentoring: In order to develop the skills of respecting others, pupils work with their mentors to discuss opinions and beliefs in a safe but challenging setting. In addition, pupils are helped to develop their self-respect and self-esteem, their understanding of what constitutes acceptable behaviour and what steps they can take to appropriately address concerns they may have.
• Community projects: Fund raising activities and community projects such as food donations to the food bank or Children in Need fundraising, alongside awareness of the issues involved or the work of the charity. Pupils also visit local elderly care provision and invite residents to attend school based activities.
• Eco Schools Award: Thanks to the hard work of our class eco reps and Mrs Taylor, Watermill school has achieved the bronze eco schools award and is working towards the silver. This involves developing understanding of environmental issues and campaigning for more considerate use of resources.
• Anti-discrimination: Pupils work with school staff and visiting agencies to consider the impact of discrimination in all of its forms. Pupils are taught to be proud of who they are and respectful of others.
• Celebrations: At Watermill School we actively celebrate a wide range of events including, for example, Jubilee Year, Christmas, Easter and Chinese New Year.
• Our ethos and the values of our staff,

"All the staff of Watermill school are unanimous in the value they give to promoting the philosophy of the school. We strive to provide an environment where there is mutual respect between staff and pupils ensuring that everyone values each other and themselves." – Watermill School Behaviour Management Policy.

Prevent

The Prevent duty is the duty in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 on specified authorities, in the exercise of their functions, to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.

Training at Watermill around these issues has allowed the staff and Governors to access a range of Materials that are linked below. The Link Governor in this area is Stacy Sharman, a prevent trainer in her own right. Matthew Coupe, Deputy Headteacher is the lead in the school.

The local authority contact for making referrals is:

prevent@staffordshire.pnn.police.uk

Our school contacts at the LA for Prevent are sarah.dyer@stoke.gov.uk or shazad.tahir@stoke.gov.uk They can be contacted with any concerns or for further information.