School is not just for learning about Henry VIII, or calculus, or how earthquakes happen. It is also crucial that pupils understand what it means to be a good citizen in today’s world. Britain has a long, vividly colourful history, and it continues to evolve fast in the 21st Century. That said, British society is shaped by a handful of key principles which run deep in its past. Trying to decide which principles are typically British is an interesting exercise, but the government has settled on four British values above all, which schools are required to teach. They are democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance for others. Read on to discover what these mean in practice.
British values
