British Values & Cultural Capital

What are British Values?

In the Early Education and childcare: Statutory guidance for local authorities document by the DfE British values are described as:

“Fundamental British values, first set out in the Government’s Prevent strategy, are democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. The promotion of fundamental British values will be reflected in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and exemplified in an age-appropriate way through practice guidance”

Schools are creating statements of how they promote and teach British values under the following headings (a quick Google brings up lots of versions).

• Democracy

• The rule of law

• Individual liberty

• Mutual respect and tolerance

However when working with the Early Years age group these values need to be meaningful and age appropriate. They are already embedded in every thing we do with the children we care for but we need to be aware of them to ensure they are being promoted correctly.

Promoting British values in our setting:

Whilst endless planning and paperwork isn’t needed it is important to be aware of how we already promote British values in our setting to show visitors should we be asked about this. These might include:

• Celebrating and marking British occasions and festivals (see the list below)

• Teaching children to listen to each other and wait before speaking, how to have a conversation

• Kindness, helpful, respectful of others

• Table manners

• Learning about our heritage and history

• Being polite, saying please and thank you

• Listening during story and song time

• Teaching empathy and understanding

• Appropriate behaviour and learning right from wrong

• Taking turns and sharing

• Learning British weather and seasons

• Being part of local community through outings and partnerships with local schools, nurseries etc

• Making friends and friendship

• Tolerating others and mutual respect

• Cooking, eating and learning about traditional British food

• Celebrating British authors and illustrators

British Festivals and Celebrations

Below are some of the festivals, celebrations and special dates we celebrate in Britain and are great to share with young children by doing activities with them to mark the occasion.

• Burns Night

• Valentines Day

• Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Day

• St David’s Day (Wales)

• St Patrick’s Day (N. Ireland)

• Mother’s Day

• Lent

• April Fools Day

• Easter Weekend

• St George’s Day (England)

• Fathers Day

• Queens Birthday

• Wimbeldon

• Halloween

• Bonfire Night

• Remembrance Day

• Harvest Festival

• St Andrew’s Day (Scotland)

• Christmas Day

• Boxing Day

What is Cultural Capital?

The framework states:

“Cultural capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. It is about giving children the best possible start to their early education. As part of making a judgment about the quality of education, inspectors will consider how well leaders use the curriculum to enhance the experience and opportunities available to children, particularly the most disadvantaged."

“Some children arrive at an early years setting with different experiences from others, in their learning and play. What a setting does, through the EYFS curriculum and interactions with practitioners potentially makes all the difference to children. It is the role of the setting to help the children experience the awe and wonder of the world in which they live, through the seven areas of learning.”

At Traceymchildminder, we feel confident talking about building activities around the children’s interests.

We use the knowledge from regular observations, work as key person and what we know of the children’s home lives to develop children’s experiences and learning.

It may include:

finding books on a child’s favourite topic

creating role-play activities that further their interest in a particular idea

taking trips to the park

or organising visits from community figures such as the police.

What is important is that we feel confident explaining why we have chosen a particular activity and how it will benefit the child’s learning and development.