SMSC (Spiritual Moral Social Cultural) Education forms a significant aspect of the Personal Development curriculum at Wandle Valley. The four areas of SMSC are structured to encourage the pupils’:
Spiritual development:
- Ability to be reflective about their own beliefs (religious or otherwise) and perspective on life
- Knowledge of, 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
Moral development:
- Ability to recognise the difference between right and wrong and to readily apply this understanding in their own lives, and to recognise legal boundaries and, in doing so, 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
Social development:
- 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 of 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 will develop and demonstrate skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain
Cultural development:
- Understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and that of others
- Understanding and appreciation of the range of different cultures in the school and further afield as an essential element of their preparation for life in modern Britain
- Ability to recognise, and value, the things we share in common across cultural, religious, ethnic and socio-economic communities
- 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. This is shown by their respect and attitudes towards different religious, ethnic and socio-economic groups in the local, national and global communities
SMSC Planning 2022-23
This year, SMSC will focus on a number of key areas. The aim is to specifically target the requirements of the SMSC curriculum, British Values, Religious Studies, Preparing for Adulthood, Character Education, mental and physical health; along with other areas that we do not offer as stand-alone subjects at Wandle Valley, such as History and Geography. We also plan a number of whole-school celebration days to acknowledge and support a range of awareness days including Black History, Jeans for Genes and Diversity week. The areas will be embedded into each of the six terms with a view to ensuring a balanced and varied curriculum throughout the year that offers continuity. The example below details the plans for term 1.
A discrete SMSC lesson will be delivered every Tuesday period 5 by primary and secondary class teachers, the resources will be planned and provided by teaching staff pairs and the basic structure will allow teachers to differentiate for the needs of their particular groups irrespective of age and ability.
Part of the SMSC weekly programme has been to build Rights Respecting language into the pupils’ vocabulary and provide them with opportunities to understand, discuss and exercise their own rights. This will continue throughout the academic year.
One of the weekly tutor sessions each term will be linked to British Values to give our pupils a full understanding of what it is to be a citizen in the UK, the content will link to the title of the session and requirements of the SMSC curriculum, democracy, tolerance, etc.
Celebration days will come in three forms, the first being our more traditional type of awareness day where we focus on a particular event such as Children in Need and Christmas Jumper Day. This will be coordinated by the SMSC lead with the expectation that all tutors will be required to support their tutor group/class to host an event or activity in order to raise money for the charity.
The second will focus on a raising money for the school to buy equipment for specific departments, the example above being History Day which will also be the focus that week. Pupils will have the opportunity to wear their own clothes on these days if they are willing to make a donation, which will coincide with the last school day of each term, also making it more appropriate for pupils to wear their own clothes. A Just Giving Page will be set up to enable donations to be made for those who prefer to use this method.
There will be other celebration days throughout the school calendar such as Black History Day which will be led by members of the teaching team with support from the SMSC lead. Activities will be provided by the staff coordinating those days for the whole teaching team to deliver across the school.
Each term there will be a current affairs debate linked to the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child and the topic will be selected by the pupil voice. This will be an opportunity for the whole school to debate the same issue and to vote upon it; giving pupils an education; not just about the social world, but also an understanding about their own rights to opinions and choices, in preparation for their adult lives.
There are two meetings planned for term 6, with primary and secondary staff respectively to present the SMSC plan for next academic year, the meeting will ensure all staff are aware of the expectations and will be an opportunity to look at ways of embedding the themes into their own practice.
Communication
So that parents and carers are aware of up and coming events a special bulletin addition will be sent to parents before the start of each term, letters will be created by the SMSC lead and the send dates stored in the calendar to enable admin to action this when required.
The Weekly Bulletin as previously mentioned will be centred around the weekly theme, it will also as ever contain highlights and important updates for parents and carers.
The use of Twitter and Instagram will be encouraged across SLT and MLT to ensure that pupils, parents and the wider school community are kept abreast of school news and to also celebrate examples of pupil achievement.
UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Award (RRSA)
The data is being collated ready to submit to UNICEF for the silver award. The silver award will provide accreditation that Wandle Valley Academy is explicitly embedding what is detailed in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in our policy, practice and culture. The final actions for this project is to look at how we can explicitly embed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in our policy or policies. The second is to gather feedback from parents as to how Wandle Valley champions children’s rights. The third action will be to address the requirement for embedding embed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into our policies. Once complete we can submit and organise a suitable date for our virtual Silver: Rights Aware Award accreditation meeting.
Pupil Voice
Pupil voice will be led by the SMSC lead, each term the mental health themes from the SMSC planning will be the pupil voice topic, so that pupils are actively engaged with the curriculum and making decisions about their own learning. The pupil voice will also be focused on promoting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child legislation which will link in with the RRSA and the Equality Act 2020.
Along with SMSC, Personal Development at Wandle Valley includes PSHE (Personal Social Health Education), a Careers curriculum that complies with the Gatsby Benchmarks and RSE (Relationship and Sex Education) across all phases.
Relationships and Sex education (RSE)
- Wandle Valley has historically taught RSE discretely via subject specialists, across all Key Stages. The academy is compliant with the new 2020 DfE guidelines and the draft policy, curriculum maps and parent consultation information can be found on the school website.
Careers Education
- The Careers Curriculum map and Provider Access policy can also be found on the school website, along with a range of resources/contacts to support pupils in their next steps beyond the academy.
