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Chertsey High School prepares students not only for academic success but for participation in society as informed, responsible, and respectful adults. Promoting British values is a statutory requirement, and the school treats it as an integral part of its broader educational purpose rather than a compliance exercise. The school's three pillars of Curriculum, Community, and Careers each provide structures through which British values are reinforced across all year groups.
The examples set out below indicate how the school embeds British values across its curriculum, enrichment programme, and school community. They represent an approach rather than an exhaustive list.
Democracy
Democratic processes are used for significant decisions within the school community. Students elect Prefects and Lead Prefects through a formal election process. The Student Action Team, which operates as a structured student voice mechanism, uses representative and consultative processes to gather student input on school improvement. This team has worked directly with staff to shape the school's House system, including the introduction of new competitions and expanded student leadership roles within each House.
The principle of democracy is explored in History and Citizenship lessons, where students examine how democratic institutions function, how laws are made, and how civic participation works in practice. Form time and assemblies provide additional opportunities for students to engage with democratic ideas and to understand their role as future citizens.
The Rule of Law
Students are taught to understand why laws exist, what they protect, and what the consequences of breaking them are. This is addressed through the behaviour framework applied consistently across the school, through assemblies, and through the Personal Development curriculum. Students learn that the rule of law applies to everyone equally and that it provides the foundation for a safe and functioning society.
Trips and visits to external authorities, including the Police, Fire Service, and Magistrates, are a regular feature of the school calendar. These visits give students direct and concrete exposure to the institutions that uphold the law, contextualising what they study in the classroom and making the connection between civic structures and everyday life explicit.
Individual Liberty
The school creates conditions in which students are able to make independent choices confidently, understanding that they operate within a safe, supportive, and structured environment. The rewards system reinforces positive decision-making and recognises students who exercise their freedoms responsibly.
Students are taught to understand their rights and personal freedoms through the curriculum and through form time activities. E-Safety, addressed through Computing and tutor sessions, gives students the knowledge to exercise their freedoms online with awareness of risk. The school's enrichment programme extends individual liberty further: students choose extra-curricular activities from a broad offer, pursue the Duke of Edinburgh Award as a personal challenge, and take on student leadership roles that require independent judgement and initiative.
Mutual Respect
Respect is a foundational expectation at Chertsey High School, modelled by staff and required of students in every setting. The school's core values of Knowledge, Determination, and Love reflect a commitment to treating every member of the community with dignity. This expectation is reinforced through the classroom environment, through the Personal Development curriculum, and through the way the school's behaviour systems are applied consistently and fairly.
Students are encouraged to express their views and to listen to the views of others. Debate Club gives students a structured forum for practising respectful disagreement. In Physical Education, the concept of fair play provides a practical and regular context for mutual respect between students competing against one another. The House system and cross-year-group mentor programmes create additional structures in which students from different year groups develop respect for one another through shared activity and responsibility.
The school's commitment to student voice, expressed through the Student Action Team and the Lead Prefect structure, reflects the position that students deserve to have their perspectives heard and acted upon. The Lead Prefects' stated priorities for the current year include strengthening communication methods so that every student feels confident in expressing their ideas.
Tolerance of Those of Different Faiths and Beliefs
The school equips students with the knowledge and understanding to engage respectfully with a culturally diverse society. Religious Studies is taught across all year groups and addresses a range of faith traditions and belief systems, giving students the academic grounding to understand perspectives different from their own. Across the wider curriculum, the BET EDI toolkit is used by subject leaders to ensure that equality, diversity, and inclusion are embedded deliberately into curriculum planning rather than treated as supplementary to it.
The school's trips and visits programme extends this further. Visits such as the Black Cultural Archives History trip and Modern Foreign Languages exchanges to France and Spain expose students to different histories, cultures, and communities directly. The annual ski trip and international visits give students experience of operating in environments beyond their immediate community. The enrichment programme as a whole, including student leadership, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, and co-curricular activities, is designed to ensure that students from all backgrounds participate fully in school life and encounter one another across different contexts.
The school's Global 10 programme, embedded across all subjects in Key Stage 3, ensures that students connect their learning to international perspectives and develop awareness of their place in a global community. Tolerance is not treated as an abstract value but as something students practise and develop through the substance of what they study and the community they are part of.
Concerns and Reporting
Any parent, carer, or member of the school community who believes the school is not meeting its obligations in relation to British values should contact the school office and request to speak with the Headteacher. Any concern that a member of staff is actively undermining these values should be reported to the Headteacher directly.
