Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education (SMSC)

Mrs Ballard (Infant School) and Mrs Baker (Junior School) are our SMSC leaders.

Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education (SMSC) and Promoting British Values

Intent

We believe that the values of our school underpin the SMSC development of all learners. We recognise that the personal development of pupils, spiritually, morally, socially and culturally, plays a significant part in their ability to learn and achieve. Therefore, we take a cross-curricular approach that provides pupils with opportunities to explore and develop SMSC so that they are prepared for life in diverse, modern Britain.

Implementation

We have clear behaviour and reward systems that promote high standards of personal behaviour and teach children to take responsibility for their own actions. Our school values are rooted in our school code of conduct and our day to day practice so that we can create a positive, inclusive learning environment. The curriculum also provides children with various opportunities to increase their cultural awareness so that pupils appreciate diversity and richness of other cultures.

Even though our school values work in harmony with British Values, we also aim to actively promote British Values in our curriculum so that pupils are prepared for the future. Despite modelling values in everything we say and do, we explicitly discuss topics linked to the values in whole school assemblies.

We know that assemblies play a significant role in developing SMSC learning. The children meet daily for an assembly and the themes/ topics for assemblies include:

• Developing understanding of positive learning behaviours
• Celebrating learning both in and out of school
• Learning about different faiths, cultures and festivals
• Understanding and applying British Values to our lives
• Celebrating through singing together
• Developing pupils’ values and sharing those of others

We do this because we want children to debate and discuss modern day issues liked to mutual respect, individual liberty, the rule of law and democracy so that they understand the importance of them and build their inquisitiveness.

We have designed our curriculum with the intent that our children will become resilient, independent, well rounded learners. Our SMSC will ensure that children are equipped with the necessary skills to be: successful, moral adults that live healthy lifestyles and take on opportunities beyond their horizons. Through the year and across the school we:

• Enhance the community and celebrate the cultural diversity within our school.
• Are inclusive, developing self-confidence and identifying that all our children are unique, as well as recognising their potential.
• Encourage our children to be self-motivated, independent and resilient
• Enable each child to add a positive contribution to their community and the wider society.
• Promote an equal value on their physical and mental well-being and ensure they are prepared for life in modern Britain.

Impact

Our focus on SMSC will ensure that:

• More children with high self-esteem and better equipped to be resilient within a modern society.
• Children are better aware of social media; how to be safe, utilise this productively and make good choices.
• Children will have had opportunities to fail, as well as discuss why failure is important, so that they are more resilient to failure and view this as a positive.
• Children will collaborate critically, creatively and with a caring approach.
• Children are better able to reflect upon their behaviour and evaluate what makes for good behaviour and what a good learner should look like; this will allow better assessment of ‘bad choices’ and how to learn from these.
• Our children will be happy, as well as encouraging of others in and out of the classroom.
• Confidence is instilled in the children, so that they are more likely to push themselves outside of their comfort zones.
• Children leave the school with a sense of belonging to a tightly knit community where they have the confidence and skills to make decisions, self-evaluate, make connections and become lifelong learners.