How important are school values?

[Cantthinkofafruit]

By which I mean the values they publish on their website

Still trying to decide on a primary school for my 3yo 😫

One of the options has published values which I just think are rubbish. They call them "the 5 C's"

Care
Courtesy
Commitment
Consideration
Co-operation

What about curiosity? Confidence? Creativity? They all seem to be a variation of "compliance" (on my interpretation at least).

Would this put you off? Otherwise the school is quite academic and strict. The other option is more child led, but has rubbish results, which is pushing us towards this one.

(Bonus points of you can identify the school/academy trust!)

I have no idea what the values are at DS' primary school. I think they all are much of a muchness really. We went for it because it was in walking distance and the children seemed happy.

Which school will suit your child best?

@PaperDoIIs if I knew that the decision would be easy 😂

I also can’t remember what our school values are, they have told me / there is a poster somewhere. If you get a good vibe in the school don’t worry a lot of the fluff is politics

You are being ridiculous. No one would pick a school based on a list of a few words. As you have demonstrated, there are hundreds of words that could have been chosen and everyone would prioritise a different list. Seriously, go for your local school unless there is a good reason not to.

Schools are so different, aren't they? And there is so much you can get out of open days. I think the best thing to do is talk to parents whose children are already at school and get a sense of what each school is like. In our area, there is one super academic school and next door one that focuses more on making well rounded kids, another one's thing is pastoral care, others are known to be good with special needs, etc. Then there is also religion to throw into a mix.
We picked the academic school for our DC and regret it now.

Schools have to demonstrate they teach "British values". Its just buzz words for this.

Sometimes children show certain traits/interest by that age. That's why I asked.

The issue seems to be that you want an academic school with good results that is also child led, compassionate etc. That's quite rare. Schools with good results tend to be that way because they are very strict, focus on academics and yes, they do expect children to comply/listen /do as they're told . School that are more child led,considerate, pastoral and understanding will have worse results for various reasons, but mainly because they center the child and their needs rather than strictly academics and tests.

Most school fall somewhere in the middle tbh , trying their best to find the right balance recognising the importance of both. Ideally you'd find one like this.

If his personality/academic ability won't fit the strict ,academic school he could end up quite miserable,in trouble all the time and damage to his self esteem. At the other school, the only real damage would be to his potential (if he is very academic) which can be reversed once at secondary or with extra work at home. Which is more important to you?

They’re done to tick a box and are fairly meaningless in my experience.

So long as your child is a kind, respectful and responsible child who always tries their best, who actually cares.

Genuinely. Our school values are different to that.
But reading your post, you really are ‘ that ‘ parent .

I think one of DC's school had the 5Cs introduced. It made no difference to anything. What made the difference for my DS with mild SEN was a totally amazing NQT who massively built up his confidence. The previous year's teacher was a PITA. So, you can pick a school based on blah, blah and blah but ultimately the teachers they get each year are what makes the biggest difference. Apart from how local it is, which also makes a difference I think (walking, local friends etc).

Not important at all 🤷‍♀️

As a teacher I would say they are a pointless marketing exercise that makes very little difference to the day to day life of the school (faith based schools aside). All schools essentially are trying to help pupils achieve the best they can academically and also be generally nice people. They package this in various ways and thousands of hours must be spent on inset on this sort of thing and thousands of pounds on advertising but in my opinion it all makes very little difference. I couldn’t tell you the values of any of the schools I’ve worked in!

Well I would choose the more academic school for my kids but it depends on what you want. I was bored at primary school and they didn’t teach me anything despite it being a very kind and lovely place. So I wanted my kids to learn a bit more. Otherwise they may as well be at home playing with siblings and cousins etc.

Choose based on how you sum them up

Surely they're fairly meaningless, I don't know what Dd's school's values are and I work in an education establishment and don't remember what they are there either.

All school values are essentially the same if you look at the core of them, just phrased differently. No school is going to say that it wants to create lying, bulletin thugs!

I went on how I felt walking around the schools and where I believe my son will be happiest - did you tour them?

Our school values are very much part of our school life. We used it when we are discussing behaviour eg you were not showing respect when you ignored the lunchtime controller and that's one of our values. The children do respond to this. We also have a values day each year where we work on activities based around our values in mixed year groups. The values are reviewed by all involved every two years. I really like it.

The school values should be the least of your worries. They are an Ofsted tick box. I know my school has them, but I can’t recall them off the top of my head.

Have a good look at both schools. The more important questions are: Are the children happy? What is the staff turnover like? Do they get good reviews / recommended on your local Facebook pages? Which secondaries do they feed into? Do they have before and after school clubs? Can you walk there?

Don't take any notice of the list of words. Most schools have pretty much the same aims. The important thing is not what list of spurious words all beginning with the same letter they try to shoe-horn them into, it's the extent to which they actually achieve their aims.

Here's a bit of anecdotal proof that you should ignore them. I am fortunate enough to work in a genuinely excellent school, with a list of words, coincidentally also beginning with C. The new Head wants to change them and showed us a long list of suggestions (some of which were utterly stupid). No idea if we'll adopt any of them, but I can assure you it will make absolutely zero difference to how good the school is.

Don’t take any notice of those words. Some committee came up with them because they look/sound good. There’ll be some people on the leadership team whose values are competitiveness, cowardice and careerism but they’re not going to put that on the posters. Though those three values would likely enable the students to be more successful in their careers, rather than all the wishy-washy stuff 😉

Thanks all! It seems that the general consensus is they don't matter, which is a relief.

In answer to questions - they are both easily walkable and have good after school care. They both feed in the the same secondaries. I think the staff turnover might be lower in the first school but honestly I'm not sureIn all honesty I think she'd be happier in the 2nd school, but I also think she might fail to reach her potential there, which would be a shame as she seems bright, so I wonder if the first school would benefit her in the long run.

Argh 😫😫😫

What matters is how the school enacts its values otherwise they are just a soundbite. My general experience has been that schools with more academic/traditional values in their marketing tend to be less strong on the pastoral care front. To me my child being happy and supported in school matters more than a £300 uniform and being top of the ratings. For children who don't need as much support and maybe thrive in a competitive environment the priorities will be different.