At Stoke Minster CE Primary Academy
We aim to prepare our students to become good global citizens of the future through planning a wide range of social, moral, spiritual and cultural experiences throughout the school year as well as weaving opportunities through the curriculum. Alongside our Christian Values, the academy upholds and teaches the British Values, which form an important part of the day-to-day life of the academy.
SMSC is the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development, it is the over-arching umbrella that encompasses personal development across the curriculum. It is not taught as a separate subject but it is across all lessons and behaviour in school. Some subjects have a direct link with SMSC such as our PSHE, RE and Worship session.
Pupils develop the knowledge, skills, understanding, qualities and attitudes they need to foster their own inner lives and non-material wellbeing.
Pupils develop the knowledge, skills and understanding, qualities and attitudes they need in order to make responsible moral decisions and act on them.
Pupils develop the knowledge, skills, understanding, qualities and attitudes they need to make an active contribution to the democratic process in each of their communities.
Pupils develop the knowledge, skills, understanding, qualities and attitudes they need to understand, appreciate and contribute to culture.
Our curriculum is designed to ensure that our pupils have the opportunity to learn and reflect on the British values that underpin our lives and to recognise the valuable role that they play as emerging citizens in British society.
As articulated in the Government’s ‘Prevent’ strategy of 2011 we have a focus on the core British values which are: Democracy, The Rule of Law, Individual Liberty, Mutual Respect and Tolerance of those of different faiths and belief.
We ensure opportunities for developing the British Values through our SMSC.
- Visitors are welcomed into our school
- Links with the local church Stoke Minster are fostered as well as links with other places of worship in our community to support the understanding of different cultures.
- The school supports the work of a variety of charities such as children in need, save the children and comic relief.
- The development of a strong home-school agreement is regarded as very important, enabling parents and teachers to work in an effective partnership to support the children.
- Children will be taught to appreciate and take responsibility for their local environment.
- Liaison with local secondary schools to support the primary curriculum and effective transition, takes place regularly.
Each class has an SMSC floor book. In this we record our SMSC events throughout the year with photos of the children comments to show our pupils voices and an overview of the even that has taken place. Children love to look at these books and remember the SMSC events that have taken place throughout the year.
We also use our SMSC floor books to form the basis of discussions with the children to show the impact of our SMSC events throughout the year.
Ofsted Definitions of SMSC
- Beliefs, religious or otherwise, which inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s feelings and values.
- Sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them, including the intangible.
- Use of imagination and creativity in their learning.
- Willingness to reflect on their experiences.
- Ability to recognise the difference between right and wrong and their readiness to apply this understanding in their own lives.
- understanding of the consequences of their actionss.
- Interest in investigating, and offering reasoned views about, moral and ethical issues.
- use of a range of social skills in different contexts, including working and socialising with pupils from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
- willingness to participate in a variety of social settings, cooperating well with others and being able to resolve conflicts effectively.
- interest in, and understanding of, the way communities and societies function at a variety of levels.
- understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage
- willingness to participate in, and respond to, for example, artistic, musical, sporting, mathematical, technological, scientific and cultural opportunities
- interest in exploring, understanding of, and respect for cultural diversity and the extent to which they understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity, as shown by their attitudes towards different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the local, national and global communities.