Review of COP2 so far

Since the crit I have been thinking about how to adapt my idea. I agree that aiming it at children does dumb down the topic a bit too much but I like the idea that focussing on young people provokes thought about the future. Instead of aiming the book at children, I have adapted it to be about young people. I feel my previous idea was basically illustrating the policy in relation to the school environment. I want to get my idea across in a  more personal and individual way by focussing on the stories of real people. I think I am going to go down the route of case studies to get across the concept  of these modern British values. I want the point to be made that the future people of Britain are people of the globe. 

I decided to go through my blog and pick out the information that is still relevant to my current pathway. I thought I might have strayed too far off topic but this has reassured me that all my research is linking together.

Paths I want to pursue:

• British values
• National identity
• Hybrid identities
• Challenging perceptions
• The future of national identity

Peer Feedback

Feedback

The main feedback I received on my activity book was that it was a good idea but it didn't match the level of concept, analysis and intellect of my essay. I think the title of my essay makes it sound more intellectual than it actually is, but I appreciated the comment and I agree that the book is dumbing down the research I have done and is not allowing me to push mu ideas for fear of it not fitting the audience. 

At first, my group and I discussed about how my current idea could be adapted to show a deeper meaning and it was suggested that I research early British values from the 40s and 50s to show a contrast to what they are like today. I could use a 50s art style in my modern day book to try to get across the contrast. I like this idea but I'm still not finding it interesting. 

As I spoke more about my essay and research, the idea came up about peoples attitudes to nationality and how I could use this in a visual way. It could be a case of nationalists vs people open to the merging of cultures. After this, I thought about a series of case studies and using the book as a way to tell different people's stories and how this has affected how they value their nationality. 

I spoke to Pete after the session because I was feeling very lost with the whole project. I felt like whenever U received feedback I seemed to come away with a totally different idea, I understand that the project needs to evolve but by this point in the module, I was hoping to have had a more solid plan. We spoke about the activity book and how the whole concept of the policy is very overanalyse and based on 'box ticking'. Even by trying to enforce equality and respect between people, it can often cause unfairness and labelling in the process. 

Overall, I need to be more brave with my ideas and decisions. For this module, I know I have been seeking approval of my ideas because I don't have a lot of confidence in my ideas on this topic. I think I need to trust my own thoughts and just run with an idea that I feel has the potential to work well. 

Self Evaluation

What works well and how will I capitalise on it?
I think the progression from my essay to the ideas for my publication are well connected but not too literally. I will try to capitalise on this by working on both tasks in parallel so they can influence each other and also do more research to develop the concepts.

What could be improved and how will I benefit from this?
I could be doing more drawing and development work and using drawing as a method of research. This might help me to come up with more interesting ideas and battle through the clichés. 

What could I do differently and what would this achieve?
I should not be neglecting my essay so much, I feel like I have done very little work on it since the draft submission. It is important to keep my essay on track so the information can potentially cross over into my publication. 

What am I learning by responding to this brief and why is it important?
1. I am learning to analyse my research better which is important to make sure I only use relevant information. 
2. I am learning about time management and how poor I have been at it with this module, it is important for me to learn about this now so that I can make changes for Cop3. 
3. I am learning to be more confident with my ideas and trust my judgement more, this is important as the course workload is becoming increasingly independent. 

Fry's Planet Word - Identity

These are the notes I took whilst watching a documentary about language by Stephen Fry. It was really interesting to learn about how lesser spoken local languages are dying out because of globalisation and how they are having to evolve to stand a chance at surviving. This had links to my essay because it shows that there are a lot of people who want to battle against globalisation and stay true to their heritage. However, there becomes a point where it is crucial for them to adapt. 

I also found it interesting that even in these areas where lesser known languages are spoken, a lot of them are still taught more global languages like English when in school. It raises the point of whether it is essential for young people to be able to speak a widely recognised language and how this affects their chances of employment or place in higher education. 

Publication Development

These are some examples of some rough drawings I did around the themes of the points in the policy. I feel my ideas at the moment are quite cliche but for an audience of children, maybe its wise not to steer this too far away from the obvious for fear of them misunderstanding it.  

This is a plan of each page in the book, obviously at a very basic stage. It would be a twelve page publication with each point in the policy taking up one individual page alone. I have been trying to link the activity to the point of the page but this is proving difficult. I can't help but feeling that this approach to my publication is dumbing the subject down a lot and not allowing me to use my research to its full potential. 

This was a mock up of an individual page, if I'm honest, I don't like it. To me, it does look like something that would exist in a book similar to the one I am proposing, however this doesn't mean that I see it as successful. Like I said before, I feel like the topic is being overly simplified and it has no impact or lesson in it. 

I am going to take what I have done so far to the crit on Friday and air my concerns about my work. Hopefully explaining my ideas to other people will make it clearer in my own head or make me realise that the book has no real potential. 

Re-written Proposal

I intend to produce a 12 page publication based on promoting British values in schools. It will be based on the standard policy published by the coalition government but will be directly aimed at children in school as a way of making them aware of these values at a young age. I am aiming this at children between the ages of 4 to 8 years which covers the first few years of primary school. The intention is for this to take the form of an activity book which can be completed either as part of a lesson, as a hand out after an assembly or as a homework task to complete with or without the help of a guardian depending on the age and abilities of the child. The booklet needs to be engaging, informative, friendly, appropriate and inclusive. 

This proposal for my publication links to my essay because my essay talks about how people value their nationality and what the future is for the concept as a whole. The fact that these British values listed by the government are very much about being connected with the rest of the world and having freedom shows a clear movement away from any past sense of nationalism or extreme patriotism or exclusivity. Targeting my book at children points the focus to the future and what views the future adults of Britain will have on their national identity. 

Policy

This news article was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Strengthened guidance on improving the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils.

The Department for Education has today (27 November 2014) published guidance on promoting Bitish values in schools to ensure young people leave school prepared for life in modern Britain.

The guidance aims to help both independent and state-maintained schools understand their responsibilities in this area. All have a duty to ‘actively promote’ the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. These values were first set out by the government in the ‘Prevent’ strategy in 2011. 

Until now schools have been required to ‘respect’ these values, but as a result of changes brought in earlier in the year all schools must now have a clear strategy for embedding these values and show how their work with pupils has been effective in doing so. In a letter to the Education Select Committee in March, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools Lord Nash explained the changes were designed to “tighten up the standards on pupil welfare to improve safeguarding, and the standards on spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils to strengthen the barriers to extremism”. 

Ofsted and the independent inspectorates now take the work of schools in this area into account during inspections.

Publishing the guidance today, Lord Nash said:

A key part of our plan for education is to ensure children become valuable and fully rounded members of society who treat others with respect and tolerance, regardless of background.

We want every school to promote the basic British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs.

This ensures young people understand the importance of respect and leave school fully prepared for life in modern Britain.

Examples of the understanding and knowledge pupils are expected to learn include:

• an understanding of how citizens can influence decision-making through the democratic process 
• an understanding that the freedom to hold other faiths and beliefs is protected in law
• an acceptance that people having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour
• an understanding of the importance of identifying and combatting discrimination

Examples of actions schools can take to promote British values are to:

• include in suitable parts of the curriculum - as appropriate for the age of pupils - material on the strengths, advantages and disadvantages of democracy, and how democracy and the law works in Britain, in contrast to other forms of government in other countries
• ensure all pupils within the school have a voice that is listened to, and demonstrate how democracy works by actively promoting democratic processes such as a school council whose members are voted for by the pupils
• use opportunities such as general or local elections to hold mock elections to promote fundamental British values and provide pupils with the opportunity to learn how to argue and defend points of view
• consider the role of extra-curricular activity, including any run directly by pupils, in promoting fundamental British values

The government today also published its interim response to a consultation of the revised Independent Schools Standards (ISS). The revised standards cover independent schools, academies and free schools, ensuring they - along with local authority-maintained schools - must promote British values.

Publication Starting Points

I am starting to think of school-based examples for these categories. This should help me generate ideas for imagery and text. The safeguarding category is linked to preventing extremism but this is a difficult thing to explain to children in this age range. I have expanded this to make it about feeling safe in school and knowing there are people there to help you.

Democracy

school council vote

Rule of Law

teacher’s authority

senior executive team

general school rules

Individual Liberty

choosing what to eat at lunchtime

what to do at lunchtime 

after school clubs

Mutual Respect

holding doors open

please and thank you

helping others 

Tolerance of different beliefs and faiths 

learning about different cultures

being friends with others from different cultures

Safeguarding

Anti bullying service

Someone to talk to about problems at school or at home

to feel safe in school

I then started to write potential phrases to appear in the booklet. I am trying to simplify my language a lot to make it daily readable and not too wordy. These will most likely change through further stages of development. 

• I can vote for who I want to be on the school council.
• The school council listens to students and tries to make the school better for them. 
• The school rules are there to make sure everyone is safe and treated fairly.
• I can choose how I spend my lunchtimes and I can stay for clubs after school if I want to. 
• I can choose what I eat for lunch. 
• I have respect for other students and they respect me. 
• I treat other children how I would like to be treated. 
• We learn about many cultures and beliefs.
• I am friends with children from all different backgrounds. 
• I know there is someone to talk to if I have a problem. 
• If I am worried about something inside or outside of school, I know I can talk to someone. 
• I feel safe in school and I know that there are people to help me if I have a problem or if I feel worried. 

The way I have written these sentences makes it sound like a child is talking about their experience of school, this might be a good approach to take. It could involve creating a character or multiple characters to talk the reader through the values. On the other hand, it could sound a bit like the terms of an agreement. This is something I want to avoid as I don't want it to come across as too informal or intimidating. 

Publication Idea Change

I have been doing some thinking over Easter about the publication for context of practice and have realised that the current idea I had for my book wasn't very solid. I have been trying to think of other topics still linked to my project and was drawn to education, especially in younger children. I think targeting my publication towards this audience will get across the idea that I am looking towards the future and how peoples opinions and valuations of nationality might change.

I thought of a few ideas relating to this theme but as I started to figure out what I would actually produce, the ideas just seemed to fall apart. It was during a conversation with my mum (who works in a secondary school) that the topic of British values came up. Apparently schools now have a policy to promote and teach British values through assemblies, events and integration into the curriculum. This really interested me and I wanted to learn more about what these British values were, what was it that supposedly defined us as a nation?

The prominent points are democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and the tolerance of a different beliefs and faiths.

An additional point on some policies is safeguarding which links to the government's 'Prevent Strategy' which fights against extremism. 

I think this shows that British values are changing with the times and we are becoming more connected and accepting of the rest of the world and people from other countries. In this list there is no sense of nationalism or exclusivity which in my opinion is a positive step towards the future.

I have changed the idea for my publication to a booklet for young children attending primary schools. I want to target this young age group to teach them directly about the values of the country they live in, hopefully this will minimise the influence of opinions of older generations who might be less tolerant of the changes that are occurring in Britain in modern day.

From my initial research, a lot of primary schools include a British Values Policy on their website, they all differ slightly but follow the main few concepts. I am thinking of creating an illustrated information booklet about these values to be given to children after an assembly on the subject or as a lesson handout or maybe as something included in an information pack for when a child starts their school life. Primary school children are aged 4-11 years old, within this age range there is a lot of learning and development that takes place which gives a wide ranger of abilities to cater for. I think the best way to tackle this is to use minimal text, just simple sentences that can be read by the older children. The book will consist mainly of images which will be enjoyable for the older children to look at but will be crucial to help the less able readers to understand the main points.

I need to do some more research into the topic of British values policies and the individual points I need to include. I am excited to work on a project aimed at children because this is something I haven't done in a long time and I am looking forward to see whether my way of working suits this purpose. I need to make sure it doesn't become too in depth and similar to something you'd find in an employment contract such as an equal opportunities clause or a code of conduct. 

The booklet needs to be engaging, educational, informative, friendly, easy to read, appropriate and inclusive.