At Welbeck Academy, we have carefully crafted a school that embeds a highly inclusive ethos.  We love our children no matter what, we forgive and forget mistakes and we teach our children to be kind and respectful.  We believe that no matter what the stage of development of a child, we will ensure that our children make good progress. We strive to create a school system that fits our children’s needs and not vice versa.  We actively look for ways to adapt and change what we do in order to meet the needs of our children.  We have adopted a loving, positive and engaging teaching and learning pedagogy, steeped in research.  The world we live in requires innovators, problem solvers, critical and creative thinkers and culturally aware citizens. It is our drive to prepare our children for a life unimaginable.

As a school we created our values together, as we believe these are the skills that we ALL need in order to drive our culture and ethos.  These values are crucial for staff development, as well as children.

The Department for Education states that there is a need “to create and enforce a clear and rigorous expectation on all schools to promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.”

The government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 'Prevent Strategy' and these values were reiterated by the Prime Minister in 2014. At Welbeck Academy, these values are reinforced regularly and in the following ways:

Democracy is embedded at the school.  Children are always listened to by adults and are taught to listen carefully and with concern to each other, respecting the right of every individual to have their opinions and voices heard.  Children also have the opportunity to air their opinions and ideas through our School Council and regular questionnaires.  The elections of the School Council members and House Captains are based solely on pupil votes, reflecting our British electoral system and demonstrating democracy in action.

The importance of laws whether they are those that govern the class, the academy or the country, are consistently reinforced.  Our school has ‘School Rules’, which are deeply embedded in our work every day.  Each class also discusses and sets its own rules that are clearly understood by all and seen to be necessary to ensure that every class member is able to learn in a safe and ordered environment.  Our children are taught the value and reasons behind laws, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken.

Within the academy, children are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As an academy, we educate and provide boundaries for our children to make choices safely, through the provision of a safe environment and an empowering education. Our children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are advised how to exercise these safely; examples of this can be clearly seen in our e-safety and PSHE lessons. Whether it is through choice of challenge; of how they record; of participation in our numerous extra- curricular activities; our children are given the freedom to make choices. They understand that with rights comes responsibility.

Our core value of tolerance of and respect for those who have different faiths and beliefs, different genders, different sexual orientations, different abilities, different families and different economic circumstances underpins our work. Welbeck Academy enhances children's understanding of different faiths and beliefs through Religious Education studies and different social circumstances through PSHE work. Visits out of the academy and visitors to the academy provide a richness of experience for our children. Through this our children gain an enhanced understanding of their place in a socially and culturally diverse society.