Modern British values are very important at Brinsworth Academy and are an integral element in Achieving Excellence.
British Values
British values are taught across the curriculum in a range of subjects and are part of our personal development programme.
Students study units in Ethics lessons that explore a range of British values such as tolerance and respect. The History curriculum covers the development and growth of our modern institutions and also explores how democratic movements and cultural developments have shaped our nation and in Geography our students explore migration and a range of case studies.
Student leadership is based upon British values and the ethos of the Academy. Student leadership roles are based on the values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience. Activities range from litter picking, reception duty, charity appeals to name a few. We pride ourselves on student’s voice and meet regularly with our student leaders to discuss actions they would like to take to support our achieving excellence message for our school and wider community.
We are proud to hold the RIGA Award and the Accord Inclusivity Award for our work and commitment to achieving excellence and ensuring that Modern British values are embedded across our Academy.
We are also proud to be recognised nationally as runner-up for the Outstanding Pride group of the year, by Just Like Us. We are committed to inclusion for all.
Community Cohesion
At Brinsworth Academy we value our diverse community and the way in which we work together. Our Academy and Community Together (ACT) vision embodies everything that Brinsworth Academy is about. We serve our community and strive to ensure that our academy is at the heart of the community. We are the proud winners of the SACRE Accord Inclusivity Award and the Rotherham International Global Award due to our community involvement. Brinsworth Academy was referred to as an Academy ‘that other schools should follow’. We work closely with the Parish Council and Rotherham Council to support community initiatives such as community lunches, litter picking and tree planting. We also host community events in schools such as The Anne Frank exhibition, termly community fundraising fayres and celebration events. We are proud of the diverse student body that we serve and this is recognised through our commitment to celebrating our diversity through our Free to Be week, culture days and religious celebrations. Our students have collected for charities on a consistent basis, through our Brinsworth Humanitarian Campaign. Students are responsible for planning appropriate fundraising activities to support this.
We encourage all our students to take a stand against hate. We offer the Mentors in Violence training, as part of a South Yorkshire police initiative, to empower students to be upstanders. We do not accept derogatory language at Brinsworth Academy and have a zero-tolerance policy.
We are proud to have achieved link school status with The Anne Frank Trust, which opens up a number of excellent opportunities for our students, including anti-racist training, delivering a national exhibition about the life of Anne Frank and a student ambassador programme. Students can become ambassadors by taking part in the Voices for Equality programme. Once an ambassador, students have the chance to access a wealth of training from The Anne Frank Trust, as well as the opportunity to attend link school events around the UK and further afield! We were invited in 2021 to attend the Anne Frank Trust Annual Lunch in London. This was a huge honour as only 3 schools nationally were selected, and we were able to share with the audience our school’s anti-prejudice film which we created with the Trust.
We share our community work via social media platforms and through our student magazine, ‘Brinsworth get Talking’. Students are encouraged to write articles for our termly magazine to share topics they are passionate about, show gratitude and respect for others and to celebrate everything that makes us, us!
Our commitment to community cohesion has been recognised by the UK social mobility awards and we feature on the Roll of Honour for 2022.
In addition, we are working towards a silver Equality Award, to recognise our community for equity and inclusion for all.
We are proud of everything that makes us Brinsworth Academy, and our ‘highly inclusive’ (Ofsted 2022) ethos that we embody.
