Values-based Education
“Pupils show a strong desire to do the best they can, in a school which encourages reflection and aspirational attributes, through an agreed set of values that are regularly referred to during daily school activities. These have a positive impact on pupils’ attainment over time.”
Values-based Education (VbE) is an intrinsic way of life at Hilden Oaks, supporting social interaction and creating an enhanced learning environment. We focus on a set of values, which provide the common thread to link everything we do throughout the school.
We explore the meaning of a specific value during assemblies by giving the children the opportunity to act out value-related stories and to contribute to their class assemblies. Children are rewarded with wooden acorns for demonstrating school values. Parents may also nominate their children and friends of their children for Oak Leaf awards for continuing to show the values at home. Preschool children will also start to learn about the more basic values, such as sharing and self-control.
Hilden Oaks is one of only three schools in Kent, to be awarded the International Values Education Trust (IVET) Values Quality Mark. This is in recognition of the school’s implementation and use of Values-based Education.
We asked our last group of Form 6 leavers which was the most important value they would be taking with them to secondary school. Interestingly, over half said ‘kindness’ but others also included confidence, curiosity, courage, perseverance resilience, equality and empathy.
Here is what they said…
Confidence—We want children leaving Hilden Oaks to be confident in their own abilities and in their potential to achieve anything they put their minds to.
Consideration—Children know that they are expected to demonstrate and experience this value in their day to day interactions with each other and the wider community.
Courage—Demonstrations of courage, great and small, are recognised and celebrated by the whole school.
Curiosity—The quality of curiosity is the foundation of a lifelong love of learning and it is our aim to instil this in every child.
Democracy—The value of democracy is central to the success of society as a whole.
Empathy—In the curriculum, children are introduced to this concept through their study of characters in literature, history and current affairs.
Equality—All children learn that they have a shared responsibility for each other’s experience of school life.
Excellence—Our academic results are excellent. The overwhelming majority of pupils leave Hilden Oaks to go to their secondary school of choice.
Gratitude—Our children learn that gratitude goes a long way beyond good manners, important though those are.
Integrity—Children are challenged to self-evaluate, to recognise their own accountability, and to understand the fundamental truth that dishonesty can only make a situation worse.
Kindness—Kindness is a core value that children are encouraged to explore and challenged to demonstrate in their interactions within the whole school community and beyond.
Patience—It is an essential skill in living as part of a community and the children are encouraged to consider it as part of our mindfulness curriculum.
Perseverance—To instil the understanding that occasional failure is an integral part of learning and growing and that two steps forward and one backwards is still one step forward!
Resilience—It is an essential skill in living as part of a community and the children are encouraged to consider it as part of our mindfulness curriculum.
Responsibility—As children progress through school, they assume increasing responsibility for managing their own work through homework books and self-directed learning.