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2023
Partners
We are partners to the UK Values Alliance (UKVA) and Values-based Education (VbE).
Monthly webinars by Zoom
Our webinars will continue from 6pm to 7pm (BST or GMT depending on the time of year) on the second Wednesday of each ODD month. Each webinar will be approximately 60 minutes long – 30 minutes will be recorded and loaded onto VIMEO.
Our speakers are based in many different countries and range over a variety of topics, all underpinned by the Living Values Education core principles, and intended to inspire educators and parents.
All the webinars can be watched again by searching for LVEBI on vimeo.com.
All details are available from [email protected]. Details of each webinar are also available on our facebook pages.
2022
Monthly webinars by Zoom
We have continued to conduct webinars from 6pm to 7pm (BST or GMT depending on the time of year) on the second Wednesday of each month. These webinars cover different subjects each month to introduce the Living Values Education core principles and give inspiration to those who are new to LVE.
All the webinars can be watched again by searching for LVEBI on vimeo.com.
2021
Monthly webinars by Zoom
We have continued to conduct webinars from 6pm to 7pm (BST or GMT depending on the time of year) on the second Wednesday of each month, introducing the Living Values Education core principles and giving inspiration to those who are new to LVE.
All the webinars can be watched again by searching for LVEBI on vimeo.com.
Our viewers have come from a number of places, including Goa, Greece, Guam, Indonesia, Kuwait, Majorca, Nigeria, Tasmania and the UK. We welcome folk from all over the world to join our webinars. The details are available from [email protected].
2020
We are delighted to report that Living Values Education (LVE) continues to be a source of inspiration to many in the UK and other places, such as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which are considered a part of the British Isles but not technically a part of the UK. The many people who have attended LVE trainings and seminars work tirelessly in many different ways to highlight the importance of values in the world.
Our chairman, Dr Neil Hawkes, is a member of the V20 Group of world experts and academics who focus on the importance of underpinning human activities with universal positive human values. The Group's aim is to enable the G20 group of world leaders, hosted by Saudi Arabia, to realise that their sustainable development goals can only be achieved through values.
We are continuing our outreach through our dedicated Facebook page (Living Values Education - British Isles) and other social media outlets, and are partners to the UK Values Alliance (UKVA) and Values-based Education (VbE).
The Covid-19 pandemic has made us consider how we can continue to promote LVE without meeting in traditional ways. We have consequently, like so many others, used Zoom to put on a series of webinars which will continue into 2021.
We conducted webinars by Zoom each month from June onwards
The purpose of our webinars is to introduce the Living Values Education core principles and give inspiration to those who are new to LVE.
Our viewers were from a variety of places, including Greece, Nigeria and the UK.
All the webinars, apart from the first webinar in June, were recorded and can be watched again by searching for LVEBI on vimeo.com.
The videos have been watched by educators in even more places, including Hong Kong and Mexico.
2019
We have not held our annual trainings and conferences recently, largely due to Nuneham House being closed for refurbishment. Instead we have provided local support to all those educators and parents who use the Living Values Education materials, so that they can consolidate values in their setting.
We have taken this opportunity to look back at some of the trainings and conferences we have conducted over the years since 1996.
Residential trainings at Nuneham House
We hosted international TTTs (every year from 1997 to 2005), international Co-ordinators meetings (every year from 2002 to 2006), and ALIVE international LVE community meeting and ALIVE general assembly in 2009.
We ran a TTT for Europe in 2008 (plus Ghana, Kuwait, Mauritius, Oman, Senegal and Thailand).
We ran TTEs for Europe in 1999 (plus Barbados, Mauritius), 2000 (plus Israel, Jordan), 2001 (plus Egypt), 2002 to 2004, 2005 (plus Trinidad), 2006 (plus Israel) and 2008.
In 2000, a group of Headteachers and members of the London Borough of Redbridge LEA held a conference to explore the place of values in School Ethos and School Improvement, both in terms of individual schools and the whole LEA They wanted to learn about the scope and quality of LVE.
Non-residential events
We enabled Icelandic educators to learn about LVE and visit values-based schools during their educational trips to the UK in 2006 and 2011.
Trainings have included:
2005 LVEP parenting session in London.
2002 Educator Training Workshop in Stoke-on-Trent.
2001 Way forward for developing values in the early years at Keele University.
One-day events have included:
2004 Work/Life Balance: Living Values, a session during a staff training day Learning better - working smarter at Grantham School for Girls.
2004 Effective Parenting: becoming the parent you always wanted to be in Liverpool.
2003 Approach to values based education for Sai School of Harrow in Oxford.
2000 Seminar to introduce Living Values: an Education Programme (LVEP) in London.
Trainings overseas
Our trainers have been involved in trainings and talks overseas in several countries, including Australia, Belgium, France, Ghana, Greece, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, the Seychelles and South Africa.
Residential Conferences to nurture educators & keynote speakers
2016 Resilience Ruth Caleb, Nigel Cohen
2015 Values in the classroom Alison Clark, Neil Balliston
2014 Modelling values Guy Command, Julie Carr
2013 MindfulnessStevi Ross, Pete Dunmall
2011 Our natural nature Gerry Davis, John Cannell
2010 Exploring the inner curriculum Jane Cross, Gill Ellis & Nicola Morgan
2009 Leading the self and inspiring others Tim Small, Bridget Knight
2008 Learning and leadership Tim Small, Julie Duckworth
2007 Emotional well-being John Fardon & Patrick Gallagher, Joanna Kitto & Jacque Grannum, Jaycee La Bouche & Veena Davidson
2006 Understanding behaviour David Rowse, John Hawkins, Lindsey Weimars
2005 Parenting matters Maria Salome (Diwa) Ligura, Melian Mansfield
2004 Values 4 all Christopher Robertson, Neil Hawkes
2003 Citizenship through values Marianne Talbot, Joanna Kitto
2002 Building positive behaviour Diana Beaver, Neil Hawkes
2001 Reflections Claudette Salmon, Karen Errington
2000 Making A Difference Diana Beaver, Neil Hawkes
1999 Raising self-esteem Rosie Roberts, Ian Sandbrook with Sue Nicholson
1998 SMSC made easy! Marianne Talbot, Gus John
1997 Coping skills for teachers Bart McGettrick, Mike George
1996 Values in my school Bart McGettrick, Gerry German, Neil Hawkes & Linda Heppenstall, Anthea Church & Lesley Edwards
2018
The late June Auton was a significant pioneer of values education in the UK, having spent about three years developing and then piloting in the primary school where she taught, the highly effective EDUCATION IN HUMAN VALUES programme that she used to launch the Human Values Foundation in August 1995.
Since then, around the world various movements have been springing up with the intention of providing a more insightful, holistic approach to education that better meets the needs of the emerging generation and equips them with competencies to flourish and succeed both during their school careers and as our exponentially changing world evolves.
For some schools, the intense focus on academic achievement is squeezing out of their timetables, the equally important development of essential life skills, as evidenced by the growing concern about the state of the mental, physical, emotional and social state of countless young people today. Bearing in mind the lack of opportunities for teachers’ values education training, here is a table with our 10-steps suggestions to help nurture values literacy throughout a school community
ADOPT a whole-school approach to valuing what’s important about life.
BUILD and integrate a balanced curriculum that that helps to foster growth mindsets.
CREATE a safe, supportive, cohesive environment.
DEVELOP strategies that promote everyone’s holistic growth so they flourish.
EDUCATE everyone about the empowering effects of well-chosen values.
ENCOURAGE the conscious use of values to guide thinking, choices and actions.
HELP everyone experience the joys of a values-led life.
PROVIDE information that nurtures everyone’s wellbeing.
SUPPORT good mental, physical, emotional, social and spiritual life skills.
WORK with others to provide early, effective interventions if needed.
It is encouraging that, just as we have always been motivated by what is valued about life and as human beings, ever more researchers, educators, teachers, parents, schoolchildren themselves, positive psychologists, agents of change, conservationists and other stakeholders are being inspired to collaborate and thereby open up pathways to systemic improvements in education.
Understanding the empowering effects of ‘values literacy’ is spawning an increasingly conscious use of carefully chosen values to positively impact the operations of governments, businesses, public services, schools, charities, families and many other organisations and groups as well as individuals from all walks of life around the world.
Excerpted from Human Values Foundation - Life Enriching Values for Everyone Newsletter 44 – Spring 2018
2016
Resilience 7 to 9 October 2016 – Oxfordshire
The Living Values Association for the British Isles held a conference from 18 to 20 October 2015 on the subject of Values in the classroom in Oxfordshire. They reported: “We had workshops on the values of respect and tolerance, and two main speakers, Dr Ruth Caleb and Nigel Cohen.
Ruth has over 30 years’experience as a counsellor / psychotherapist in settings which include ChildLine, AIDS/HIV counselling and private practice.
For the last 24 years, she has specialised in counselling university students and staff, and has been Head of Counselling at Brunel University for the past 16 years. Previously Chair of the BACP Universities and Colleges expert division, Ruth is currently Chair of the Mental Wellbeing in Higher Education (MWBHE) Working Group (supported by Universities UK / GuildHE). She has authored papers, articles and book chapters on the subject of mental wellbeing, and has addressed a briefing at the House of Commons on the subject of student mental health. She also has a role as an Academic Adviser on the Doctorate in Psychotherapy programme jointly run by Metanoia Institute and Middlesex University.
Originally a Chartered Accountant, Nigel has worked with Values-based Education for several years. He helps to consolidate values-related ideas, concepts and resources for schools. He has just published a book, ‘Designs for Better World’, which explores the inner workings of society and the interdependent relationship it has with human nature. The book draws on his experience with the fundamental role values play in co- ordinating our personal and economic activities in a way that secures our personal wellbeing and that of society.”
2015
Values in the Classroom 18 to 20 October 2015 – Oxfordshire
The Living Values Association for the British Isles held a conference from 18 to 20 October 2015 on the subject of Values in the Classroom in Oxfordshire. They reported: “We had workshops on the values of peace and responsibility, and two main speakers, Alison Clark and Neil Balliston.
Alison recently completed a doctoral study of a values-based school, focusing on how teachers engaged with and implemented the school’s expressed values. A classroom teacher for 27 years and in higher education for 6 years, Alison’s experience with values and ethos began in earnest in the 1990s at Bartholomew School in Oxfordshire, where the teachers brought values to the forefront of the teacher and pupil experience, creating new relationships and ways of working together. Also drawing on her recent role in training primary and secondary school teachers, Alison reflected on how a focus on values provides purpose and meaning for what it is to be a teacher. Alison currently supports schools with their values journey, offering training on global learning, and is a school governor.
As head teacher of a values-based school, Neil placed a huge emphasis on children and staff developing an ethical vocabulary that encouraged team work and mutual respect. He now develops and supports many schools across England in their pursuit to become values based. He also works for Create Development and delivers training for schools in real PE and supports the development of PE Leaders and staff.”
2014
Modelling Values 10 to 12 October – Oxfordshire
The Living Values Association for the British Isles held a conference from 10 to 12 October 2014 on the topic Modelling Values in Oxfordshire. They reported: “We had workshops on the values of respect and love, and two main speakers, Guy Command and Julie Carr.
Guy studied at Cheltenham College, McMaster University (Canada) and the Tavistock Centre (London), completing an M.A. dissertation on ‘Alienation and Young People in a Multi-Cultural World’. He has worked in a wide range of learning environments world-wide. He is a volunteer advocate for the Communities Empowerment Network, focusing on young people in the Greater London area who have been experiencing difficulty in their learning environments.
Guy organises experiential workshops on improving motivation, ‘connection’ and resilience, working with young people themselves, families, teachers and other professionals. He is also an international trainer / assessor of Communication Skills for the University of Cambridge and Trinity College (London) in many countries. He has been a guest speaker for ActionAid in London and Kenya.
Julie was headteacher at Lyneham Primary School, Wiltshire. Her aim was to give each child ‘a flying start to lifelong learning' in a warm and caring atmosphere where ‘every child is valued’. She created a happy and successful school life that nurtured a child's progress towards becoming an independent and confident adult.”
2013
Mindfulness 18 to 20 October 2013 – Oxfordshire
The Living Values Association for the British Isles held a conference from 18 to 20 October 2013 on the subject of Mindfulness in Oxfordshire. They reported: “We had workshops on the values of responsibility and happiness, and two main speakers, Stevi Ross and Pete Dunmall.
Stevi is a Psyche Educator, Mindfulness Integrated CBT Therapist and Breathworks trainer who has delivered mindfulness training programs for over 15 years in the UK, New Zealand and Europe. She showed us how learning to live mindfully improves many areas of life, including health and well-being, work and relationships, and expands our potential to live totally, truthfully, passionately.
Pete has been a teacher, deputy head teacher and head teacher, and also worked as an Advanced Skills Teacher, focusing on raising children’s academic achievement and developing teachers’ pedagogy. Head of a large Inner London primary school, Pete looked more deeply into reasons for children’s under achievement. Finding the values-based education philosophy, he supported and implemented this approach in school. Visitors observe how the values ethos works successfully in a diverse, multi-cultural community, which is being further developed through reflective practices and mindfulness with the Hawn Foundation.”
Silence in the Classroom is Vital
“Silence in the classroom can improve children's behaviour and exam results,” reported the Daily Express, September 23, 2012, quoting an academic. The Daily Express continued: “Teachers and heads across the UK who have introduced silence techniques, such as meditation, mindfulness, pausing, silent reading, silent moments and quiet spaces, have seen results improve.”
Dr. Helen Lees, a former teacher and now research fellow at Stirling University's School of Education, cites the work of actors Richard Gere and Goldie Hawn, whose Hawn Foundation in America is championing the use of so-called of 'strong silence' to get results.
Dr. Lees, who has investigated the technique for a new book, Silence in Schools, said, “This is not 'hippy nonsense'.”
“These techniques may turn people's understanding of what education ought to be on its head. It is a fascinating new educational area which can create school improvements at no cost.
As most of you may know, LVE has been creating silence spaces in the classroom since 1997 with peaceful quiet signals for relaxing and focusing and mindful exercises to help students fill themselves with peace, respect and love. LVE calls these “Quietly Being Exercises” for the three to seven year-old group and “Relaxation/Focusing Exercises” for the older set. While all these exercises are in the Living Values Activities books, the ones for young children are recorded with music and downloadable from the LVE international website. As one four-year old child in a LVE classroom asked his teacher once, “Miss, is it time to be quiet yet?”
Values-Based Education Workshop 23 May 2013 – Cardiff, Wales
On 23 May 2013, there will be an Educators’ Workshop in Cardiff. This course provided an understanding of the importance of including values-based education in schools and other settings.
Values-Based Education Train-the-Trainer – 26 and 27 June 2013 – Cardiff, Wales
This two-day course offered the opportunity for trainers to explore ways of supporting and training colleagues in values education and of supporting the development of values education in their areas. This course builds on the areas covered in the Educators’ Workshop.
2012
Conference: Values Education for Life and Learning 29 October 2012 – Birmingham
The purpose of this conference is two-fold; the first is to provide clarification about what we might mean by the terms ‘values education’ and ‘values in education’ together with the impact that such values can have on the improvement of school life, the quality of learning and the development of young people as civilised human beings. The second purpose will be to provide practical and applicable examples of how such ideas can be introduced into the school ethos, the curriculum, extracurricular activities and character-building
Following the morning presentations, the afternoon workshops will offer a variety of approaches to values education across the whole age-range and institutional settings, providing opportunities for discussion, reflection and the sharing of experiences.
Venue: The Arden Hotel, Bicken hill, Birmingham
Living Values Education International Film on YouTube
Living Values Education International film: It features educators and students engaged in Living Values Education in five countries: Brazil, India, Kenya, Mauritius and the United Kingdom.
TESMAGAZINE
Shelagh Moore, the Vice-president of ALIVE and a resident of England, sent in this TESMAGAZINE article. She noted, “I met Gill at an Living Values Education Train-the-Trainer seminar at Oxford. She got into LVE from Neil's old school at West Kidlington Primary School, Oxfordshire, and is a great example of how values can be taken forward. Let's hope they win the TES award.”
2011
Values Activities Strengthen the Family Unit, bringing home and school closer
LVE Vice President, Shelagh Moore, writes, “I met Gill at an LVE TTT at Oxford. She got into LVE through the West Kidlington Primary School in Oxford, of which Neil Hawkes, a former ALIVE Director, was Headmaster. This is a great example of how values can be taken forward.” The link below features Tesmagazine’s 15 April edition on strengthening the family unit.
2010
Living Values Education has been active in the British Isles since the inception of Living Values, which has been presented at numerous conferences and meetings, and to many heads, deputies, teachers and parents, both inside and outside the British Isles.
What we do
We have working groups, hold weekend seminars and residential training. We train teachers, and those involved with young people, in the use of values in their work.
We go into schools and work with them to develop a values-based school. Values-based schools tend to thrive pastorally; teaching, learning and behaviour improves, where previously there have been difficulties.
Living Values activity books are being used in homes, foster homes, parenting groups, childcare centres, nurseries, primary and secondary schools, colleges, training colleges, universities, education departments, outdoor education centres, young offenders institutions, prisons and by management, health and social workers. There has also been interest from parenting groups and those working with the early years or with young adults – leading to one-day events where parents practise values with their children.
Our training
Weekend residential seminars are held each November, to support parents, teachers, social workers, psychologists and other professionals working with young people. They provide an opportunity to further personal growth and professional development. The topics are of current interest in the field of education.
Our newsletters help to remind people about the training they have received.
The November 2009 seminar was Leading the self and inspiring others - a values-based approach. Tim Small introduced us to circles of trust and the work of Parker Palmer, Neil Hawkes gave us various values ideas for the classroom and Bridget Knight described how it feels to be a values-based leader, drawing on her experiences in the classroom as a primary school headteacher.
Results of under 7s values activity
Other topics investigated over the years have been:-
2008 Learning and leadership
2007 Emotional well-being
2006 Understanding behaviour
2005 Parenting matters
2004 Values 4 all
2003 Citizenship through values
2002 Building positive behaviour
2001 Reflections
2000 Making a difference (Music, Art and Drama)
1999 Raising self-esteem
1998 SMSC made easy! (spiritual, moral, social and cultural education)
Learning and Leadership - Tolerance
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Our next residential seminar is from the evening of 15 October to after lunch on 17 October 2010 near Oxford. The title is Exploring the inner curriculum – ways of living our values and it will include aspects such as:
- What is going on in my inner curriculum?
- What values and skills do I need for a simple, creative, happy life?
- What values and skills do I need to deal with loss, rejection and failure?
- How can I help young people to develop these values and skills?
There will be workshops on the value of simplicity. We will also hear about the Family Values Club and other practical experiences of values education. Contact [email protected] for further information.
International activities
Values Education is a world-wide story. Educators and providers of education have decided to use a values-based approach as it fits in with their ethical, cultural, religious beliefs and has a universal appeal. The training is culturally unbiased and has been developed to allow communities to move forward positively with their lives. From street children to those in private schools, values education allows all to develop living values that become part of their lives and their outlook. The world is a better place where values are developed, respected and upheld.
International Train-the-Trainer workshops for educators from over 50 countries, together with members of LVEP's sponsoring/supporting organisations (UNESCO, UNICEF and the Brahma Kumaris) have been held near Oxford.
Train-the-Trainers (Europe) in July 2008 trained educators from 10 countries (Ghana, Kuwait, Macedonia, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Oman, Senegal, Switzerland, Thailand and the UK) at the Global Retreat Centre. They were from a variety of backgrounds, including arts, children and family support, government, hospital, school, social services and university. Each day included sessions on parenting skills, creative visualisation and values activities, where peer practice gave every participant the opportunity to conduct an activity.
Train-the-Trainers 2008
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There are now over 500 locations in the British Isles, where Living Values books are available as a resource. More than 300 educators have attended a Train-the-Trainers course.
Number of Sites using Living Values: an Education Programme
Total number of sites
As many educators are now getting the books from the publisher and from bookstores, all we can say is that there are over 500 sites that have the Living Values activity books.
“We train teachers to identify the values they hold dear and help them to work out ways of introducing them to their children. Our sessions are very interactive and participation leaves the delegates, relaxed and smiling!”
Clehonger Primary School
Impact
a. In schools.
A special educational needs teacher in a secondary school, who has just started to use Living Values, says, “I have started to use LVEP in my projects and individual work with the students I teach. I am noticing a more loving, supportive, calmer climate amongst the students. They appreciate discussions about love, honesty, respect etc. and it helps them to focus on their core beings rather than the false selves they get caught up in whilst being dragged along by the tides of negativity in a school environment e.g. fighting, arguing, shouting, swearing etc. These values are imperative to the holistic growth of a child and I hope to co-ordinate them throughout the school once I have had experience of using them first hand with the students. Thank you.”
A teacher at a primary school noted that there had been no miscreants standing outside the head teacher's office when a Living Values team spent 4 days demonstrating values activities in the school!
A head teacher states, "Ofsted noted that because we work on values education, our academic standards were obviously higher."
b. In prisons.
Living Values activities and creative visualisation are also being used in prisons to benefit drug rehabilitation groups and young offenders, men and women. It is helping them to deal with oppressive aspects of prison life, such as bullying, to regain their self-respect and to strengthen their values in preparation for their release.
c. In the community
“I worked with 18 ladies in a predominantly Islamic community, age range 18 to 50, using LVEP values and art based activities. The content was Confidence building & Understanding your communitywith Day 1 - Peace, Day 2 - Respect. Participants were so empowered that they have gone on to apply for further courses. For some, the 'Confirmation of Attendance' certificate was the first educational recognition they had ever received.”
“Although I haven't been using LVEP overtly this year, one thing I have noticed is that, since I've been using LVEP principles in my own life, students' response is warmer and their achievement is good - they are able to find inspiration in class. Students who came to my Interior Design class considered themselves to be inartistic, but they’re all going on to take creative subjects like watercolour painting next year. So...”
