Ideas on how to promote British Values in practice
Many childcare settings and childminders are becoming increasingly worried about whether they are promoting the British Values correctly in the eyes of Ofsted. When in fact if they are already promoting these within their practice, then everything should be ok. It is down to managers to ensure the British Values are embedded into everyday practice and can be highlighted to Ofsted. The section leadership and management skills will judgment during an Ofsted inspection in conjunction with how managers are actively promoting the #BritishValues, therefore, managers need to ensure they are across how these are being embedded in practice.
As the EYFS already promotes these values, childcare settings including childminders should be already promoting them in practice. For example, children learn right from wrong, sharing with others and respecting other opinions. It is down to managers and practitioners to identify how these are being demonstrated in practice.
Practitioners should provide a learning environment that helps teach children to value others and be confident in talking about their feelings. Providing children with these opportunities is crucial in a child’s development and it will help them understand about why decisions are made.
How to promote the British values in practice;
Why not evaluate your everyday practice and examine the ways in which you are promoting these values and consult with your team on how else you could promote them. There are many ways in which the British Values can be embedded here are a few suggestions;
- Using stories to help children learn about feelings
- Introduce golden rules through the nursery
- Look at ways at how you’re following children’s choices and preferences. Eg tracks children around the room and make a note of what resources/toys they access and this may help you when it comes to looking at the layout of the room
- Use resources to help children learn about sharing eg sand timers, objects to hold during circle time etc
- Plan days to celebrate different cultures and faiths and do a display on these
- Invite the community in
- Visit places of interest in your community
- Ask children their opinions on what they would like their role play area to be
- Give children choices during snack time
- Have puppets and persona dolls in the room for children to freely access
- Ask children what activities they would like to do
- If looking to renovate an area of the nursery ask the children their views
- Include children in helping to create a display
- Include children’s voices on the planning
To obtain a copy of our resource pack that contain ideas on how to promote the #BritishValues in your setting click here. This resource pack was created to support settings during The Great Big British Values Week.
All of the above suggestions are great but how are you evidencing these, have you created a displaying showing how your setting promotes these values. Good practice would be to include the children’s voices on displays as this is respecting children’s opinions. How else could you document evidence for Ofsted, could you make up a photo album demonstrating these values in practice or could you create a cultural celebration booklet for parents showing the different cultural celebrations the setting has joined in with? Having this evidence will help you during your Ofsted inspection.
What other ways do you promote these values in your setting?, it would be great to hear how other settings embed these values in practice.
Leave a Reply