Reception and Year 1 Olympus class, learnt about the British Value Rule of Law. This means understanding the rules set in place for everyone and why they are important. It's also about following the rules to keep our society and our communities in order. We discussed our school rules: Ready Respectful Safe and what this looks like for us.

We played Ruler for the Day where children said what rules they would bring in if they were in charge! We talked about rules being there to help people and although it would be nice to have a rule that made us eat chocolate every day, it wouldn't be healthy for us.

Here is a selection of some of their brilliant ideas to celebrate pupil voice:

Leia: if I was a princess in charge, I would make everyone eat broccoli every day and also they have to do some reading and homework to get really clever. That's the rule!

Penelope: if I was the boss I would make everyone wear a tutu every day and they have to put on a face mask to make their skins soft and luscious.

Zach: my rule would be: keep learning as it is important and the rule is you do it all your life

Laith: if I was king you would have to play football every day, that's the rule.

Isabella: my new rule is we all have to watch and play on the computer all day everyday!

Jacob: we will have a one day at school and six days having a rest at the weekend rule!

 

Year 1 and 2 discussed our 3 school rules and through having a school council we can share our voice. They read a book called 'All are Welcome', and discussed how we treat everyone the same and are welcome to be a part of Queen Emma's regardless of our differences. 

 

      

 

Year 3 and 4 discussed the differences between laws and rules and between punishments and consequences. The children imagined what the world would be like without laws and what the school would be like without rules. The results of those discussions were that we would live in a very dangerous place.

 

Pupil voice;

"I enjoyed that we learnt the difference between a punishment and a consequence and I liked that we were able to work together to discuss the questions. I would now like to know which consequences you get when you break a law." 

 "I liked that we learnt the difference between a rule and a law. I would now like to know more about the rules and laws there are in the country."

 

In Year 5 and Year 6 we explored laws and rules and what they are. First we were introduced to the words 'law' and 'rules' and asked what we thought they meant. Some of us knew what they meant, some of us didn't. In Year 5 we explored Road Safety in more detail and the different punishments you may get such as: fines, if they are really bad you could get sent to prison and parking tickets. In Year 6 we started talking about how long you might be in prison for things such as: murder, verbal assault (ie threatening someone) and burglaries. We talked about rules that we have family wise, football and any sports and other different situations. Someone explained how if they didn't do their chores they don't get their iPad which shows a real life rule for that child. We then had a chance to create our own laws, rules and then the punishment and whether that was fair or unfair. This lesson was entertaining because our teachers gave us the opportunity to explore our own imagination and what we thought about rules and laws. 

Written by Sam C and Katy W

Pupil Voice;

'We learnt about rules and laws. I liked writing my own rule and law because it was fun.'

'It was fun because we made up our own laws and rules and we made up our own punishments. We decided if the punishment was fair or unfair. We had to explain what rules and laws are. The difference between them is a rule applies to only a group of certain people but a law applies to everyone. We shared stories about road safety and rules we have at home.'

'We learnt that there is a difference between laws and rules. We explored some unique rules such as ‘you cannot look suspicious while holding a salmon’.'

We celebrated British Values focusing on Individual Liberty in school this week.

 

In Olympus class, Early Years and KS1, the children looked at our Colour Monster calming corner and talked about how they were feeling and what they could do to help a friend. We talked about self confidence and what we are good at. The class drew a picture to explain how they enjoy their own individual liberty and shared some examples of this.

Pupil voice:

Laith: When I grow up I am going to choose to be a dad. I will live with my dad and we will be dads together.

Penelope: I can get to choose what I have for breakfast. I like breakfast in bed.

Gwille: I can choose my friends and the adventure at lunchtime

Lillian: I choose to work hard on my reading and I am going to be a gymnastics teacher when I am a grown up.

Tristan: I am very good at designing and making. Especially with boxes and tape, I am a super brilliant super star!

• As part of our focus in PSED we learn about on self-confidence and self-awareness.
• We provide opportunities for children to develop their self knowledge, self esteem and increase their confidence in their own abilities
• We encourage a range of activities that allow children to explore the language of feelings and responsibility
• We reflect on their differences and understand they are free to have different opinions from those around them
• We encourage and support children to make safe choices, allow them to take risks in a safe, well planned and supervised environment.
• We encourage self-serve at snack times and daily helpers to develop self confidence and self esteem
• We use targeted praise and positive language to increase confidence
• We use photos and children’s comments/views to highlight achievements, promoting the process rather than the end result
• These are shared in our floor books, the website and on Tapestry
• We have created an emotions area with a display to help children manage their own emotions and help them to develop empathy
• We support children to make choices by considering the environment, furniture and resources and make changes accordingly e.g we recently adapted our role play area and the children have an additional focus table which is a vets.

 

In UKS2, we discussed the value of liberty and the importance of each of the points on the UN's Human Rights Charter, highlighting how priviledged we are in our country to be able to take these rights for granted. The children took each of the rights in turn and discussed their relative merits before placing them in order of importance within their groups. Finally they selected one right that they felt was the least valuable and shared their reasoning with the rest of the class. In year 5, the general consensus was that the right to possessions was least important, as they could see more value in the protections offered by the other rights. Year 6 were more divided, but our decision came down to a choice between Care and Happiness, as many felt that humans are inclined to instinctively offer those and it didn't need to be a right, and Freedom of Movement which many felt was something they could live without as they have so much to offer in their own country.