Over the past few weeks in assembly, the School Council have been looking closely at the British Values and what they mean. They have researched and presented their findings on ‘Democracy’ and ‘The Rule of Law’ to the rest of the school. This week, the School Council addressed the whole school in assembly to focus in on another one of the British Values. They talked about Individual Liberty and what it means. This is what they said…
‘Individual liberty means each of us having the freedom to make our own choices and do what we want, within reason. We must respect the other British values and the rights of others, then we are free to pursue our ambitions, and follow our own will.’
‘Our individual liberty gives us great freedom to be independent and express ourselves. In Britain, we can follow the religion we want to and love who we want to. We can choose what we want to wear and we have the right to say what we think, although we need to do this with respect to everyone. Living with this freedom allows us to live in peace and learn from one another.’
‘Although we have freedom, we don’t have freedom to do whatever you want – there are rules that help everyone to get along. You can’t help yourself to other people’s things and you are not free to go onto private property without the permission of the owner.’
Next week, they are going to zoom in on ‘Mutual Respect and Tolerance’. The children discussed the topic, researched it and are going to share the following in assembly.
‘Basically, Mutual Respect and Tolerance means respecting the values, ideas, and beliefs of other people whilst not forcing them to believe in the same things that we do.’
‘We can show Mutual Respect and Tolerance by embracing diversity and celebrating it. We can promote awareness of different religions, traditions, cultural heritages and preferences and we can tackle stereotypical, labelling, prejudice and discrimination.’
‘It is important to have mutual respect and tolerance because it is the foundation of being a good member of society, and mutual respect underpins good relationships.’
‘To have respect for a person involves a fundamental belief in their right to exist, to be heard, and to have the same opportunities as everyone else.’
