Values and Ethos | mountpleasant

Vision and Values | In Action

"Learn for Life"

The notion that we have a school that develops children in to more than a ‘set of results’ is the bedrock of our vision and ethos for Mount Pleasant Primary School. Our school aims to develop children in to ‘good citizens’, who will go on to do ‘great things’. Developing children’s character, through positive attitudes, resilience, bravery, kindness and care are central to daily life at Mount Pleasant Primary School.

This bedrock encompasses all of school life, but particularly the approach and policies of the school in relation to:

Personal, Social, Health, Citizenship and Economic (PSCHE – including Relationships and Sex Education),
Fundamental British Values,
Behaviour
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) aspects of school life.

In order to realise this vision, in every day practice and interaction, at Mount Pleasant Primary School, we live by a set of 6 virtues – which are articulated, recognised, lived and taught. These virtues, and ‘sub traits’ are:

*these sub traits have their own progressively planned year group expectations

Half Termly Virtue Focus

Each half term, there will be a half-termly virtue of focus. This does not mean that others are ignored, but for that half term there will be:

A virtue launch assembly – focusing on the focus virtue and looking at the virtue in action, in stories and fables,
The half termly family group day will aim to promote and develop the virtue
Class virtue ambassadors will all focus upon the current virtue – and award the class award for that week in the award/class assembly.

The aim of the half-termly focus is to ensure that as a school community, we have a deep understanding of each virtue and it is actively promoted. The virtue for the half term is chosen in relation to staff views regarding which virtue focus would be a strong contributor to addressing any emerging issues within the school.

Specific Virtue Approaches

All virtues are promoted, interwoven, recognised, and rewarded at all times, with Dojo points, but for some virtues, there are specific approaches taken in their active promotion. These are detailed below.

Fairness

This is closely linked to the Fundamental British Value of Democracy

PSCHE Curriculum – ‘relationships’ and ‘feelings and attitudes’, and ‘living in our world’ strands
A culture of voting – linked to the Fundamental British Value of Democracy. Election of School Council Members, voting in Assemblies.
‘Big Questions’ interwoven within our school curriculum – e.g. should zoo’s exist? Should everyone have to work? Good idea?
Restorative approach to behaviour issues
Every child will represent the school at sporting events as an equitable offer – this is explained and valued
School Council to work with the school SLT to improve the school
Global Citizenship curriculum – Global Goals , Fairtrade

Kindness

This is closely linked to the Fundamental British Value of Mutual Respect and Tolerance

PSCHE Curriculum – ‘relationships’ and ‘feelings and attitudes’, and ‘living in our world’ strands
School pets across school
Children draw up a range of local stakeholders whom they want to work with during the year and they choose a local Charity to support.
Reading stories and singing for local community events and locations – e.g. Christmas songs at the old people’s home
Collecting and raising money for charities – such as the local food bank and national charities, such as the NSPCC. Volunteering themselves as a resource – within school and community
Class buddies to support those children who need it (a specific intervention for those who struggle to make friends)
Buddies in the dining hall to support children at lunchtime.

Respect

This is closely linked to the Fundamental British Values of Mutual Respect and Tolerance and the Rule of the Law

A strong RE curriculum – including trips to and visitors from a wide range of faiths
PSCHE Curriculum – ‘relationships’ and ‘feelings and attitudes’, and ‘living in our world’ strands
Outdoor Education Programme (Carlton) – respecting the outdoors and own and others’ safety
Children taking responsibility for their own environment – tidying, planning for and maintaining their own school environment (including tidying away own plates and cutlery)
A relentless focus by all staff on manners – children cannot take their lunch without saying please and thank you.
A conscious decision to ensure a range of people are invited in to school – reflecting a diverse population – e.g. Methodist Church , PCSO , Dogs Trust ,
Visiting a range of locations – teaching children how to ‘be’ in a church, theatre, gallery etc

Justice

This virtue links closely to Individual Liberty – being brave, to be oneself

Standing up for oneself and others – linked to our PSCHE curriculum themes of ‘relationships’, ‘feelings and attitudes’ and ‘people who help me’
Knowing how to recognise bullying – and the importance of bystanders
The creation of safe spaces for children to share, open up and articulate feelings and beliefs – by interweaving opportunities for children to discuss and debate regularly across the curriculum. Use of the Red Cushion / Emotional, Health and Wellbeing Zone.
As children progress through school, we aim to develop leadership opportunities for them:
- School Council
- Rights Respecting Team
- Librarians
- Playground Leaders / Buddies
- Digital Leaders.
- Specific steering groups as required
We see the ability to confidently speak as a prerequisite for Justice – if children can say it confidently, they will say it. As such, we expect children to speak in sentences and staff both model and expect this during interactions with children
Children are taught that being brave does not mean hiding your emotions – Red Cushion / Emotional, Health and Wellbeing Zone are available.

Calmness

When children learn to remain cool and calm in a variety of situations, they can develop the skills of self-control, which leads to long term independence.

PSCHE Curriculum – ‘relationships’ and ‘feelings and attitudes’, and ‘mental wellbeing’ strands
The continual reward of those who do not react, but respond.

Resilience

From day 1, children are encouraged to keep trying with appropriately faced challenges – whether these be academic, personal or social challenges. The notion of perseverance is valued highly
When children ‘sign up’ to a role, club or experience – we encourage children to ‘stick it out’
We deliberately have limited meal choices each day – we encourage children to try, try and try again – teaching children the value of aiming for a varied diet – and persevering towards it
The ‘mental wellbeing’ and ‘feelings and attitudes’ aspects of the PSCHE curriculum
Buddies and trainee buddies ‘Official Helpers’ in the Playground and dining Hall – these are the school’s ‘Official
Helpers’, formally applying, going through interview and training, must stick at it –with the privilege comes responsibility! At the end of the Year ‘Buddy of the Year’ is chosen to lead the Buddies in the next academic year.

Virtues Based Rewards

We reward the virtues and behaviours that we expect explicitly. We do this via:

School staff awarding Team Points based on the full range of virtues. The class-wining colour Team is rewarded at the end of the week .The wining Team at the end of each half term have a non- uniform day, reward chose through democratic vote by School Council.

Other Awards include:

The class teacher ‘Star of the Week’ award, to recognise excellent work or effort, presented in weekly parent assembly.
Head teacher’s special award for a child who has demonstrated excellence in any area of school like.

Mount Pleasant Primary School believes that values are very important. Values are things we believe in that help us to make decisions about how to behave. They are the principles that guide our lives. Some commonly held values include thoughtfulness, respect, trust, love, friendship, sharing, courage... There are lots more values and many overlap.

Some values are quite tricky to understand and difficult to do every day; others are easier to spot and simpler to do.

At Mount Pleasant Primary School we look at values in detail so that we all have the words to describe them to each other and know how to spot them in ourselves and in others. We will celebrate when people are showing values - by sharing them in celebration assembly, every day with smiley cards, sharing with parents by sending notes home. We are sure that parents will help our children to understand values at home and will celebrate with them as appropriate.

Thinking about values is not just something that helps us to learn when we are younger; it is a set of tools that we will carry with us all our life. Understanding values will help us to make difficult decisions even when we are grown--up. To feel valued is a special thing and something we want to make sure everyone experiences at Mount Pleasant Primary School.

PSHE

Vision and Values In Action

British Values

SMSC development