What is the value of “Values”?

If you visit any school website, read any prospectus or ask any Head, you will very quickly come across their School Values in some verbal or written form. They will be engrained in staff vocabulary and quoted as often as possible. That is true here at Westonbirt Prep as much as it is elsewhere (The 3Cs: Curiosity, Creativity, Courage, if you were wondering). But what is the purpose of these, outside of marketing or inspection responses and why do schools put so much emphasis on them?

Well firstly, it is pretty difficult to come up with them! You must nail down a series of words that are pneumonic or alliterative in lots of cases, or at least roll off the tongue. They must also be concise, memorable and punchy, whilst still encapsulating everything that you do in your school, every day, for every pupil. It helps if they are original (almost impossible with so many people doing them same thing) and hopefully provide inspiration. Ah, there’s one of the usual suspects. Ambition, collaboration, resilience, perseverance, determination, respect, friendship, discipline, responsibility, kindness, diligence, commitment, tolerance and many, many more, including, you guessed it… Curiosity, Creativity and Courage. You will see these or a close relation in every school you ever visit.

I refer to these as our aspirational values; the things that we aim to be each day. The fundamental values that I believe for any school are Happy and Safe. Happy to come to school, to learn, to see their friends and safe; physically of course, but also emotionally. Our staff team and our wider community creates a culture where children can be safe to share ideas, thoughts, emotions and experiences without fear of judgement and they create an environment where children are safe and confident to be their true selves. If we get these fundamentals right, it allows us to be aspirant in the further values we aim for.

So what part do these values play in every day school life? For us, we could have used any of the above list and I could happily explain how we promote and demonstrate each of them. However, The 3C’s became our aspirational values when we assessed what a day at Westonbirt Prep looked like for staff and pupils.

We pride ourselves on a wide-ranging curriculum full of opportunity, both inside and out of the classroom and we discussed what was needed to make the most of these. This might be in maths or English, in the science labs launching dry-ice rockets, in Forest School cooking on a fire, or in DT drilling and sawing. Equally, it was important to us that the values we chose also applied across the sports field, the swimming pool, in the art studio, on the stage, outside at break time and in the lunch hall. All of our children, from Reception and through to Year 6, experience these opportunities in their week so they had to be transferable across subjects, contexts, ages and individuals.

We also had to be able to abide by them as staff, in order to model what they meant. We believe that our 3C’s give guidance as to what we expect of adults and children, when faced with situations which are academic or pastoral, formal or relaxed, inspiring or challenging.
It is important to remember that each of our C’s means something different to each individual. Courage for some will mean attempting a new food for the first time, or mastering a tricky phrase in a different language; to others it may be putting their hand up when not 100% sure of an answer and being confident to give it a go; to others it might be a case of joining a club that none of their friends go to but which they’ve always wanted to try. Creativity could be applied to their writing in Magical Literacy Day, their painting during art week, finding a mathematical solution to a problem or breaking down a defence on the court. Curiosity encourages pupils to ask, to try, to explore, to investigate and to fail… and then to find out why they failed, and to try again armed with this knowledge. The 3C’s are just as relevant to staff; if we are to stretch and challenge children individually, to create a curriculum that inspires and memories and lessons that last a lifetime, we must surely be emboldened to push boundaries, to ask questions, to imagine what could be possible and be brave enough to try something that we know might not work. Why? because if it doesn’t, there is still a lesson to learn. And if it does, then we find true value in our approach.

To return to the original questions, what is the value of Values? Well for us, they are a keystone that holds together all that we do, and a base to which we can always return to hold ourselves accountable. In our case, they are far more than a tagline, they are who we aspire to be.

Sean Price, Headmaster of Westonbirt Prep School