Excellence in Pupil Development Award (EPDA)

Our aim at Swanmore College is to provide an excellent academic education and experience for all pupils regardless of their prior ability. We aim to ensure that pupils leave Swanmore ready for the next stage of their education and life regardless of what that may be. We do this by supporting pupils to become resilient, inquisitive and independent learners ready to take control of their own education and lives.

To help develop these attributes, we at Swanmore College are embarking on achieving the Excellence in Pupil Development Award which aims to develop pupils’ character, value and skills to ensure they become independent, active and responsible learners.

This award offers a structured framework to evaluate and enrich our pastoral curriculum. It supports us in developing pupils’ personal attributes and attitudes, such as self-confidence, resilience and self-discipline. With a focus on involving local and national organisations, it helps us to prepare pupils for life in modern Britain.

This shall be achieved in the following ways

Curriculum – embedding the knowledge and skills for personal development are into the whole-school curriculum.
Behaviour – Setting high expectations for pupil behaviour and conduct, including punctuality and attendance.
Responsible citizens – Promoting positive attitudes from pupils towards their own learning, towards each other, and towards the wider community.
Local partnerships – Engaging with local groups and parents to deliver enrichment activities that develop pupils’ confidence, responsibility and leadership skills.
External organisations – Actively enlisting the support of national and international agencies to help raise pupils’ aspirations for their future.
Professional development – Committing to high-quality, ongoing staff CPD so that all staff can build and support pupils’ personal development.

Statement of Fundamental British Values

Swanmore is committed to serving its community. We recognise the importance of promoting the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs*. In line with the guidance provided by the Department for Education, Swanmore College views this as a way of also helping to demonstrate how the school meets the requirements of section 78 of the Education Act 2002, in the provision of SMSC.

Our role is not limited to supporting pupils to gain the knowledge and acquire the skills that allow them to achieve academically, but is also about the personal development of every student in its fullest sense, preparing them for their life as successful and responsible citizens. Part of our role in that preparation is ensuring that we promote and reinforce British values to our pupils.

By promoting these values, staff and pupils feel empowered to challenge opinions or behaviours in school which are contrary to fundamental British values.

Through the provision of SMSC, Swanmore College aims to:

enable pupils to develop their self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence;
enable pupils to distinguish right from wrong and to respect the civil and criminal law of England;
encourage pupils to accept responsibility for their behaviour, show initiative, and to understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality of the school and to society more widely;
enable pupils to acquire a broad general knowledge of and respect for public institutions and services in England;
further tolerance and harmony between different cultural traditions by enabling pupils to acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures;
encourage respect for other people; and
encourage respect for democracy and support for participation in the democratic processes, including respect for the basis on which the law is made and applied in England.

(As taken and adapted from ‘Promoting fundamental British values as part of SMSC in schools’ – DfE Nov 2014)

*The Prevent strategy 2011: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-strategy-2011

Swanmore College promotes fundamental British values so that all pupils and staff have:

an understanding of how citizens can influence decision-making through the democratic process – as shown through ‘mock elections’, assemblies, College Council, Pupil Conferencing, outside speakers, aspects of the curriculum, and other pupil driven democracy related projects;
an appreciation that living under the rule of law protects individual citizens and is essential for their wellbeing and safety – as covered through aspects of the curriculum and assemblies;
an understanding that there is a separation of power between the executive and the judiciary, and that while some public bodies such as the police and the army can be held to account through Parliament, others such as the courts maintain independence – covered in ‘mock elections’, specific trips, aspect of the curriculum and assemblies;
an understanding that the freedom to choose and hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law – aspects of the curriculum and assemblies;
an acceptance that other people having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour – through aspects of the curriculum, assemblies, outside speakers, specific trips and through open use of the school motto; and
an understanding of the importance of identifying and combatting discrimination – as covered through promoting the school ethos, assemblies, the pupil code of conduct and implementation of other key school policies.

At Swanmore College these fundamental British values underpin everything we do and permeate the whole college community. The examples that follow give a flavour of some of the ways we seek to embed them. They should be seen as an indication of our approach rather than an exhaustive list.

Democracy

At Swanmore College pupils are always listened to by adults through regular Check-in tutor discussions. They are also encouraged to listen carefully and with concern to each other, respecting the right of every individual to have their opinions and voice heard.
We encourage pupils to take ownership of not only their learning environment but also of their own learning and progress. This encourages a heightened sense of both personal and social responsibility, which is demonstrated on a daily basis by our pupils.
A deeper understanding of democracy is also explored in subjects such as English, History, Personal Development and R.E.

The Rule of Law

The importance of laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the college or the country, are consistently reinforced as well as being actively promoted when dealing with behaviour issues, mentoring and reflection time.
Pupils are taught the values and reasons behind laws: that they govern and protect us; the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken.

We regularly review behaviour incidents in the College and share these with key stakeholders.

Individual Liberty

At Swanmore College, pupils are actively encouraged to make independent choices secure in the knowledge that they can do so in a safe and caring environment.
All staff at the college empower students so that they are aware of how to exercise their rights and personal freedoms within safe parameters. Whether it be through choice of learning challenge, how they record work, participation in extra-curricular opportunities or supporting fund raising events, pupils are given the freedom to make choices.

Mutual Respect

Mutual respect is an essential part of Swanmore College’s ethos and values.
Effective restorative practices foster awareness of how others have been affected by inappropriate behaviour. This is done by actively engaging participants in a process which separates the deed from the doer and rejects the act not the actor, allowing participators to make amends for the harm caused.
Restorative practice acknowledges the intrinsic worth of the person and their potential contribution to the school community. Pupils learn that their behaviours have an effect on their own rights and those of others.

Acceptance of Those with Different Faiths and Beliefs

Swanmore College promotes equal opportunities guidance which guarantees that there will be no discrimination against any individual or group, regardless of faith, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, political or financial status, or similar.
This is achieved through enhancing pupils understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society and by actively promoting diversity.
All subjects embrace opportunities to enrich pupils’ knowledge of other cultures.
Pupils, staff and parents are actively challenged for expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British values, including ‘extremist’ views.

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Swanmore College PREVENT Statement

This statement can be found in the safeguarding policy, all staff annually complete a PREVENT training update alongside the annual whole staff Safeguarding training.

Preventing Radicalisation and Extremism

The prevent duty requires that all staff are aware of the signs that a child may be vulnerable to radicalisation. The risks will need to be considered for political, environmental, animal rights, or faith based extremism that may lead to a child becoming radicalised. All staff have received prevent WRAP training/undertaken e-learning/received awareness training in order that they can identify the signs of children being radicalised.

There is no single way of identifying whether a child is likely to be susceptible to an extremist ideology. Background factors combined with specific influences such as family and friends may contribute to a child’s vulnerability. Similarly, radicalisation can occur through many different methods, such as social media or the internet, and at different settings.

As part of the preventative process resilience to radicalisation will be built through the promotion of fundamental British values through the curriculum.

Any child who is considered vulnerable to radicalisation will be referred by the DSL to Hampshire children’s social care, where the concerns will be considered in the MASH process. If the police prevent officer considers the information to be indicating a level of risk a “channel panel” will be convened and the school will attend and support this process.