After the last serious outbreak of urban rioting in this country, back in 2011, the then prime minister David Cameron responded with a speech which identified a “slow-motion moral collapse” as the cause of the unrest. There followed much soul-searching as we tried to identify what we stood for as a nation and what was the best way to educate our young people so they would not grow up into people who wanted to destroy society.

A set of “British values” were drawn up which all schools – independent, academies and maintained – were then required to promote. Fundamental British values, as they are known, are democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect of those with different faiths and beliefs. In addition, the government started to look for character traits (or virtues) which might be promoted in schools.