British values in the Early Years

Why are British values important in the Early Years?

In the Early Years, children are like sponges — they soak up everything, good and bad. That’s why it’s so important to be intentional about what we teach them both directly and indirectly.

Children are learning quickly, so it's the perfect time to teach them important values. These values will help them become good members of society in the future. This is why it’s beneficial to begin promoting British values already in the Early Years.

It might seem odd to focus on this with young children, but there’s a good reason for it. In this article, we’ll dive into those reasons and also, everything your setting needs to know about British values according to the EYFS.

The Prevent Duty guidance and British values

British values are part of the Prevent Duty guidance that all childcare providers and Early Years settings need to follow. The Prevent Duty is about stopping children from being drawn into terrorism, where terrorism is defined as opposing British values. So, promoting and encouraging these values in your setting is a key part of the Prevent strategy.

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What do Ofsted and the Local Authority say about British values?

Ofsted's Education Inspection Framework (EIF), states that inspectors will make a judgement on how settings are ‘developing learners’ understanding of fundamental British values’.

In the Early Years Inspection Handbook, an ‘inadequate’ grading in leadership and management may be given because "Leaders do not tackle instances of discrimination. Equality, diversity and British values are not actively promoted in practice."

It's particularly important you can show how you support the promotion of British values to your local authority, as your funding depends on it. The Prevent Duty guidance states:

"Early education funding regulations in England have been amended to ensure that providers who fail to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance for those with different faiths and beliefs do not receive funding from local authorities for the free Early Years entitlement."

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British values and EYFS

Before we dive into that let’s remind ourselves of the EYFS principles in order to understand their

Four guiding principles that should shape practice in the Early years. These are:

• Every child is a unique child, who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident, and self-assured.
• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.
• Children do well when they have support and guidance from adults who understand their interests and needs. This helps them grow and learn slowly over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.
• Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. (See “The Characteristics of effective teaching and learning” at paragraph 1.13). The framework covers the education and care of all children, including children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Now, let’s go into the specific British values you should be promoting in your setting according to the EYFS.

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What are the 4 British values we should be promoting?

Here are 4 British values to focus on promoting in your setting.

1. Democracy

Democracy is where we make decisions together. Like many of the other British values, it’s also about making sure that everyone has equal rights and is treated equally. Each child’s views matter, and it’s important they are given the opportunity to share and collaborate to make decisions together.

How you can promote democracy at your Early Years setting:

• Enabling children to feel comfortable with questions is an important part of improving their confidence. Making sure you have an environment that allows inquiring minds to ask questions is key to promoting a democratic way of thinking.
• Many of the British values encourage sharing and collaborating, and it’s one of the most important skills children learn in the early years. Develop provisions that encourage and support collaborating and working together towards a common goal wherever possible.
• Encourage democracy by involving kids in decision-making, like asking them to raise their hands to vote on certain choices.
• Let them be a part of making displays and other things around the setting also allows them to actively participate in a democracy by giving them a choice. ‍

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2. Rule of law

The Rule of law is about understanding that rules matter in our society and are to be followed for a reason. For kids, it’s about helping them understand that actions have consequences and understanding the difference between right and wrong.

How you can promote the rule of law at your Early Years setting:

• The most obvious way to introduce the rule of law into your setting is by having simple, consistent classroom rules. Ideally, children will have a hand in creating and agreeing on these themselves. Making sure you model behaviour by following these rules yourself is important too. Remember children copy what they see and hear.
• Understanding the nature of cause and effect is a massive part of the rule of law. Young children enjoy learning how their actions can change things. Encourage this by letting them make positive impacts in their environment.
• Actions have consequences. Showing this to children shouldn’t be about shame, that’s not what British values are about. Instead, it’s about explaining to children how something they have done might have made another child feel and working on empathy, instead of just asking them to say a meaningless ‘sorry’.
  

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3. Individual liberty

Individual Liberty focuses on freedom for everyone. The main point developmentally is to give children a positive sense of themselves. It's important to help children boost their self-confidence and self-awareness. This can be done by giving them the right language and context to understand their emotions.

How you can promote individual liberty at your Early Years setting:

• Child-led play is a simple way to develop a child’s liberty. Letting kids follow their interests boosts their self-confidence more than sticking to a set plan you made for them.
• Encourage children to enjoy their favourite things and explore them. Let them mix their own colours and see what happens. Read their favourite book to them. Allow them to collect leaves and sticks that catch their interest in the forest.
• While health and safety is important it shouldn’t get in the way of risky play. It’s absolutely crucial to develop a child’s sense of confidence and awareness of what they’re doing.‍

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4. Mutual respect and tolerance

Create a welcoming environment that embraces all beliefs, cultures, races, and perspectives, while also recognising and celebrating our unique qualities.

How you can promote mutual respect and acceptance at your Early Years setting:

• Encourage them to be aware of our similarities and differences. This is key to respecting other cultures that might seem entirely different from their own background.
• Create a calendar of cultural events, and find ways to incorporate them into the activities at your setting. This way children are able to understand and play a part in cultures that they wouldn’t necessarily see in their lives outside of the nursery.‍
• Storytime is a great opportunity to explore different cultures and backgrounds with kids in a fun and engaging way. Look for stories about children with diverse experiences. These stories will captivate young minds and help them understand and respect other faiths and cultures.
• An understanding of the wider community in which they live is also a way of showing the diverse world that we live in. Taking the children out on day trips is just one way to do this.

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How to navigate the EYFS

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How else can we promote British values?

In addition to the values mentioned above, promoting British values is also about challenging behaviour that goes against these ideals. For example, your setting cannot:

• Actively promote intolerance of other faiths, cultures and races.
• Fail to challenge stereotypes
• Routinely separate boys and girls
• Isolate children from the wider community
• Fail to challenge behaviours that are not in line with the British values we’ve been talking about.

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Is your setting promoting British values?

A great way to check in on how you're doing at your setting is to conduct an Assess, Action and Show audit.

• Assess – Think about your setting and the activities and provisions you have for your children. Are you falling short in any of the four areas outlined as British values? Are you doing more than just box-ticking?‍
• Action – Take action to improve if you are falling short. Educate staff on the importance of British values. Actively add initiatives that focus on the values, or on ways to promote them. Explain to parents why they matter.‍

Show – Make sure you can explain or show to parents, inspectors or new teachers how you promote British values. If you can’t easily explain what you’ve done, you might not have done enough.