This week saw the staff of Sandhills Primary School in Oxford and Aberdare Church Town Primary School in Wales, enthusiastically embrace the principles and practices of Values-based Education. Dr Neil Hawkes was assisted at Sandhills by Simon Poote an experienced Foundation Stage Teacher, from Mill Lane School, Chinnor, Oxfordshire. Simon’s work exemplifies best practice as a values-based teacher.

The list of schools being awarded the Quality Mark as values-based schools continues to grow. Please have a look at the list by clicking on the link on the home page.

If you are an established or aspiring Values-based School in the UK and have staff that have not been inducted into the philosophy and practice then please contact Dr Neil Hawkes through this website for training opportunities next academic year.

Westoning Lower School in Bedfordshire has been awarded the Quality Mark as a Values-based School. Jean Peacock, Headteacher and her staff have work consistently to ensure that the whole of the school’s curriculum is based on universal positive human values such as respect, care and respponsibility. Westoning joins a growing number of schools in Bedfordshire that have gained the Quality Mark, which is being recognised by Ofsted teams as a mark of good practice. Dr Neil Hawkes said, ” I’m thrilled that Westoning Lower School has received this recognition for its outstanding work in Values-based Education.”

This evening, the school’s community met at a Values Forum to determine the Values that they wish to underpin the life and work of the school, families and the community. Dr Neil Hawkes led the evening and was enthusiastically supported by members of the the community. Debbie Cushing, the Headteacher is convinced that Values Education will help her to ensure that the children are educated holistically and raise standards still further in the school.

Dr Neil Hawkes was invited today to meet with the Principals of the Crest Academies in London. Assistant Head, Kojo Wood, had invited Dr Hawkes to discuss how the Academies could embrace Values-based Education. The Academies could be the first in London to be officially Values-based schools. This is wonderful news for London.

Last Friday, Dr Neil Hawkes spoke enthusiastically on Lincolnshire’s local radio station, following a highly successful conference run jointly by Relate and Lincolnshire County Council. The theme was Parenting pre and post separation and divorce. Neil highlighted the beneficial effect of using positive human values to empower parents to work for the benefit of their children. Lincolnshire is adopting values-based education in all its schools and settings.

The Group met today with Dr Neil Hawkes. The focus was taking values into the community. The Group is representative of Bedfordshire Headteachers who are adopting Values-based Education as their educational philosophy and practice. These schools are gaining the recognition, not only of their local communities, but the inspection service Ofsted. The group feels that the new Government should be aware of and endorse their work. Watch this space!

Dr Neil Hawkes attended a meeting at Oxford University on Saturday, where Will Hutton spoke about fairness being an indispensible value of capitalism. He said that in recent years the concept of fairness has been ignored eg profit being a company’s purpose rather than what it is doing; hence greed in the banking sector causing us so many financial difficulties. We need a value system that is again based on fairness. Dr Hawkes believes that fairness should underpin all organisations. He hopes the new UK Government will be mindful of this if it is to gain the support of all sectors of society.

The Trustees of the Values Education Trust met at Exeter College, University of Oxford on Saturday. This was a very enthusiatic meeting that focussed on many issues including an international conference which the Trust will arrange for next June/July.