This is a valuable practical resource full of ideas and activities designed to create learning environments that are caring, open, supportive and growth-promoting. It is designed to support the SEAL programme in England and the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland. It aims to familiarise students with the many positive human traits we refer to as values. Each unit contains a page of teaching ideas and several worksheets. All the worksheets are available on an accompanying CD-ROM.

Peter Clutterbuck has again produced a wonderfully creative book that will inspire all those committed to holistic education. Designed to support the SEAL programme for primary schools it takes humanitarian qualities such as “honour', “responsibility' and “tolerance' (to name but three) and provides stimulating activities to enable children to reflect on what these actually mean in practice. The book is organised in two sections ” the first “identifying values' encourages reflection on what these words might mean; the second is self-explanatory : “specific values activities.' The book can be followed as a programme ; however the worksheets could also be used individually. A variety of approaches are used, including questionnaires, real-life stories and role-plays all of which are aimed at stimulating thinking and discussion on a profound level (A CD of worksheets is helpfully included) Much of the material is reminiscent of themes addressed in primary assemblies; however, the particular strength of this book is that it gives teachers and children practical tools with which to apply them to their own lives and make them personally meaningful. Highly recommended.

The book is a welcome addition to the Values Library and it deserves its place on the shelf of every school. The rationale is clear and well developed within an attractive layout. It is a veritable treasure trove of practical activities and contains some thought provoking open ended questions which stimulate the children's thinking.

If you adopt a value of the month approach as we do there are excellent suggestions for developing each value.



The section on attributes is extremely useful as these are fundamental to preparing children for the challenges of life. They will fit in perfectly with the curriculum model that we are developing in response to the New Welsh 2008 Curriculum orders. The C.D. of worksheets is a great idea. A fine book highly recommended.

A wonderful book, full of ideas connecting the abstract concept of values to down-to-earth activities.

“Do the right thing!” - how often do pupils hear this and how often do we give them the opportunity to think about what “the right thing” is and why? Values provides teachers with a treasure-trove of ideas and activities to support primary pupils in developing their own values through reflection, discussion and questioning - higher-order thinking skills in every day contexts!

Having worked as a coach for many young people, it is so useful to have this myriad of proven exercises in one easy to access resource.

I would suggest that teachers use these ideas in a connected way, dropping exercises into planning for citizenship, circle time and related activities.



The `questioning` of your values section would work powerfully in a paired session ” many young people are amazed at the qualities others see in them and reflecting on your worth is a valuable and motivation action.

Successful Learners

• Thinking creatively and independently


• Making reasoned evaluations


• Link and apply different kinds of learning in new situations

Confident Individuals

• Self-respect


• A sense of physical, mental and emotional wellbeing


• Secure values and beliefs


• Relate to others and manage themselves


• Develop and communicate their own beliefs and view the world

Responsible Citizens

• Respect for others


• Commitment to participate responsibly in political, economic, social and cultural life


• Understand different beliefs and cultures


• Develop informed, ethical views of complex issues

Effective Contributors

• Apply critical thinking in new contexts


• Solve problems

Comments

Another bright idea from Peter Clutterbuck. Every teacher should have “Values” on their shelf as I certainly will have on mine.

The activities and ideas within this practical book will enable teachers to focus on Personal and Social Development while covering many aspects of a “Curriculum for Excellence” particularly within the area of responsible citizenship.

This is a book of tasks, there is very little theory or explanation of activities. This makes it a useful resource to add to an existing curriculum, but not complete in itself.

The book comes as two sections, identifying values and specific values activities.

The first section is a collection of photocopiable worksheets for use in teaching about values and what it means to have values. These sheets are fairly self explanatory, but do not come with any additional teaching notes. This makes them a valuable resource to a busy experienced teacher who could use these sheets to support and expand on what has been covered through discussion and role play. Each sheet would make a powerful framework for group discussion or whole class discussion rather than individual work. It would be lovely to see these tasks available for use on an interactive white board for use by larger groups.

The second section contains a series of short units on 39 different desirable values (e.g. confidence, honesty, courage) which could be dipped into as and when appropriate for a class.

Each unit contains a page of teaching ideas and several worksheets to support learning. The activities suggest a range of tasks that would be suitable for different age students including role play ideas, personal reflection, creative activities and research ideas. The activities are well thought out and varied, they would provide great support to teachers trying to address specific issues that have arisen or for meeting the PSHCE curriculum. There are plenty of ideas for extending more able pupils included.

The worksheets use a variety of resources, including texts, to stimulate discussion and thought and could positively contribute to literacy resources.

The activities in this book would support delivery of the S.E.A.L. programme (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning) in the upper primary years. It would be really good to see these links being made clear in a future edition, making it easier for the busy teacher to find the right activity to support their teaching within each of the seven themes.

The activities in this pack are clearly aimed at the upper stage of primary, the texts are challenging and the concepts are often ambitious even for lower KS2. These materials would be equally valuable into KS3, the illustrations are suitably grown up for use in secondary school.

This book provides very good pick-up-and-use activities for older primary pupils to discuss and think about a range of personal values and how they affect their lives.

Positive points:
A valuable support to teaching PSHCE in upper KS2 and KS3. Activities are clearly set out and provide positive challenges to think about. A useful resource but no clear differentiation.

• The book is clearly laid out; it is easy to find useful resources on the appropriate issue.


• The book clearly addresses a wide range of values that are desirable for good citizenship.


• All topics have fully reproducible resources.


• Images and illustrations are simple and do not dominate, this makes the resources suitable for able younger children and less able older children.


• A wide range of activities are available, including stories, poems, questionnaires, drawing and research.


• The book would be suitable for use in KS3 tutorial groups and would provide focused activities for the short periods of time often available to class tutors.

Negative points:

• The high level of reading required for many of the tasks makes it unsuitable for younger children.


• There are no guidelines for introducing most tasks.


• There is a need for explicit connections to be made with the S.E.A.L programme.


• All worksheets are laid out for individual completion, where they could be valuably used in group discussion.


• The book is defined as a programme for Primary schools; however most of the content would be unsuitable for KS1 and most useful in upper KS2. Any school buying this to use across the school would be disappointed.


• Activities would benefit from clear learning intentions being given.


• The activities do not give any support for differentiated learning.