Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC) 2024 - 2025
“Children must be taught how to think not what to think” – Margaret Mead
At Boundary Primary School SMSC lies at the heart of everything we do. As a school we believe in building a community of confident, responsible, caring, compassionate, respectful and highly motivated children who achieve excellent academics. We value the importance of children growing up into strong, active and tolerant members of society who are able to take their place in the wider world and go on to great and exciting things.
Our school curriculum and provision is planned to support this, and enriched with a wealth of opportunities for pupils to learn and play together, to take part in a wide variety of cultural and extra curricular activities, and to mix with people of other ages, cultures and faiths in order to develop understanding and interest in the wider world and community
SMSC stands for spiritual, moral, social and cultural and is described in the table below.
Spiritual
The spiritual development of pupils is shown by their:
- ability to be reflective about their own beliefs, religious or otherwise, that inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s faiths, feelings and values
- sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them
- use of imagination and creativity in their learning
- willingness to reflect on their experiences.
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Moral
The moral development of pupils is shown by their:
- ability to recognise the difference between right and wrong and to readily apply this understanding in their own lives, recognise legal boundaries and, in so doing, respect the civil and criminal law of England
- understanding of the consequences of their behaviour and actions
- interest in investigating and offering reasoned views about moral and ethical issues and ability to understand and appreciate the viewpoints of others on these issues.
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Social
The social development of pupils is shown by their:
- use of a range of social skills in different contexts, for example working and socialising with other pupils, including those from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds
- willingness to participate in a variety of communities and social settings, including by volunteering, cooperating well with others and being able to resolve conflicts effectively
- acceptance and engagement with the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs; they develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain.
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Cultural
The cultural development of pupils is shown by their:
- understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and those of others
- understanding and appreciation of the range of different cultures within school and further afield as an essential element of their preparation for life in modern Britain
- knowledge of Britain’s democratic parliamentary system and its central role in shaping our history and values, and in continuing to develop Britain
- willingness to participate in and respond positively to artistic, musical, sporting and cultural opportunities
- interest in exploring, improving understanding of and showing respect for different faiths and cultural diversity and the extent to which they understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity, as shown by their tolerance and attitudes towards different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the local, national and global communities.
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We have also been re-accredited, for the second time, with the GOLD SMSC Quality Mark for our outstanding SMSC provision
"the school are very clear about the role SMSC plays throughout every aspect of school life and how SMSC is ‘threaded’ through the curriculum and offers children a breadth of opportunities to support them to be able to become ‘well-rounded people who can cope with the world and make the right decisions’."
Quote from SMSC Quality Mark verification report, December 2022
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development (SMSC): Blog items
