British values....

[Spottycurtains]

For OFSTED all schools must now outline how they are promoting and teaching British values. To comply with these new demands our school has asked all curriculum leaders to outline how their subject's curriculum do this.
While I agree wholeheartedly with the values we should promote such as tolerence, I feel very uncomfortable calling them British.
I can't help but think that there is a certain irony in implying that the values of tolerance, respect and acceptance of all cultures and religions belong to one nation.
I can't think of an alternative name, Human values- too vague, Western values- potentially as insulting, maybe democratic values?
Am I being an oversensitive wooly liberal?

Well just because they are British values, it doesn't mean they can't belong to other counties too, it's not exclusive.

It's in the wake of the Trojan horse scandal and is designed to promote the idea that whatever your heritage, in this country we aspire to inclusivity, equal opportunities and democracy. Yes, many other countries do also do this but the idea is that if you are being educated in Britain, this is the way we do things here.

I think that as well as looking at how the various religions began and how they operate, there should be equal time given to a study of the Enlightenment, ethics without religion and the development of scientific thought.

Well my favourite British value is queuing up politely (and NEVER jumping the queu). I wish that one could be emphasised again! But I suppose they mean democratic government, equal rights and freedom of religion, the justice system etc...

As a British national of foreign ancestry, I can honestly say that from what I understand of this new scheme, it is going to further alienate a lot of children who are not English.

Secular, democratic, western values. Nothing wrong with those. If we continually pander to what this group wants or what that religion requires we will set our hard won democracy back by centuries.

But isn't democracy about having institutions and a society that represents ALL those who belong to it Marylou? So surely if Britain is democratic then we British values should be an encapsulation of what we all are, not an encapsulation of what some of us are.

And why shoukd western values be the measure of whether someone can be British or not? What constitutes western values is pretty subjective.

Yanbu - but it's hard to think of an alternative name though, isn't it so it doesn't bother me what they call it. I'd be interested to see the full list of values it wants to teach as part of the curriculum that it classes as 'British'.

Maybe I'm being naive but from what I've seen in schools they do already promote inclusivity, tolerance, respect of other cultures etc teaching about Diwali, Chinese New Year, Nativity etc. At Ds' school they've introduced it as 'everyone is special' and are looking at the differences between people etc and what makes them different/special. I thought our education system was quite good in that respect.

Absolutely mummypony but unfortunately there will always be those who wish to marginalise women in society or discriminate against people on grounds of sexual preference and they cannot be allowed to disrupt our democracy.

Isn't the terminology that OFSTED use something along the lines of "preparation for life in modern Britain" rather than "British values"?

Because I agree that the first one is important but the second one just smacks of jingoism.

CBF - the list in the legislation is "fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law,individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs"

I think there are very good reasons to teach these values but that has been done for years. The legislation now requires all schools and nurseries (and childminders I think?) to 'actively promote' them. My concern is that this 'British' set of values was lifted from the Prevent anti-terrorism strategy and brought in in response to a fear of hardline Islam being used to take-over schools. It's very easy for that to give the impression of a 'clash of civilisations'. It seems to me it would be much wider to appeal to internationally agreed human rights and then to teach how they are relevant in the UK rather than defining them in this fairly jingoistic way which may well alienate people with traditional religious beliefs and give a false impression of a choice between those beliefs and being 'British'.

Promoting 'British values' doesn't actually address those types of issues though. Teaching human rights, womens rights and so on would be far more effective. All this British values agenda implies is that Britain is the only culturally civilized nation and that creates a sense of alienation for children of minority backgrounds.

Tees has explained in a far more articulate way than I could have.

No "British values" is pretty embedded in the law and policy now ouryve. see e.g.
Independent schools www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2374/pdfs/uksi_20142374_en.pdf

OFSTED www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/391531/School_inspection_handbook.pdf look at paragraphs 133 and 152

Early years provision www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2147/regulation/2/made

We lived in Canada for five years, my DSs sung the O Canada every morning and Canada as 'a good thing' was heavily promoted.

I have never witnessed multiculturalism working so well. I had neighbours from all over the world, we had a street party for the World Cup. Maybe the promotion of British values isn't such a bad idea because let's face it, we aren't doing a great job of cohesion right now.

I'm sure that there's much that can be learned about the way Canada and other countries do things Lucille but the way this is being promoted here is quite different. These British values aren't supposed to promote multiculturalism, quite the reverse: the government is specifically using them in opposition to 'failed multiculturalism' e.g.