The recent terror attacks in Paris prompted Nicky Morgan to reiterate the government's desire to 'actively promote' British values such as free speech and tolerance in schools. But what does that mean? We summarise the DfE's recent guidance on the matter in relation to teaching SMSC as part of a broad and balanced curriculum.
The 2002 Education Act requires all maintained schools to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of pupils at the school and of society, as part of a broad and balanced curriculum. This DfE guidance explains how schools can actively promote fundamental British values in schools through the 2002 Act's general requirement to deliver SMSC education.
The guidance follows calls by ministers for schools to actively promote British values after concerns about an Islamist takeover in some Birmingham schools. The advice is aimed at head teachers and governors at maintained schools.
The guidance is intended to make clear to schools the extent of their duties under the Act. In particular, the guidance emphasises that pupils should be encouraged to understand that ‘while different people may hold different views about what is right and wrong, all people living in England are subject to its law’. Schools’ ethos and teaching ‘should support the rule of English civil and criminal law and schools should not teach anything that undermines it’.