SMSC

How we promote SMSC at Chesterton Primary School At Chesterton Primary School all staff recognise that the personal development of pupils, spiritually, morally, socially and culturally, plays a significant part in their ability to learn and achieve. We aim to provide an education that provides pupils with opportunities to explore and develop their own values and beliefs, spiritual awareness, high standards of personal behaviour, a positive, caring attitude towards other people, an understanding of their social and cultural traditions and an appreciation of the diversity and richness of the cultures. As a diverse school we celebrate what makes each of us unique and special. 

All curriculum areas at Chesterton Primary School have a contribution to make to the child’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and opportunities for this are planned within the curriculum.

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All adults Chesterton Primary School model and promote expected behaviour, treating all people as unique and valuable individuals and showing compassion and respect for pupils and their families.

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Children learn to differentiate between right and wrong in as far as their actions affect other people. They are encouraged to value themselves and others.

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We aim for the children to understand the need for rules and the need to abide by rules for the good of everyone. School and Classroom rules reflect, reiterate, promote and reward acceptable behaviour and provide opportunities to celebrate pupils’ work and achievements.

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Children are celebrated in our celebration assembly for a wide range of achievements, we place equal value and worth on all achievements.

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All curriculum areas seek to use illustrations and examples drawn from as wide a range of cultural contexts as possible.

Spiritual Development At Chesterton Primary School, we aim to provide learning opportunities that will enable pupils to:  Sustain their self-esteem in their learning experience.  Develop their capacity for critical and independent thought.  Foster their emotional life and express their feelings  Experience moments of stillness and reflection.  Discuss their beliefs, feelings, values and responses to personal experiences.  Form and maintain worthwhile and satisfying relationships  Reflect on, consider and celebrate the wonders and mysteries of life.

Examples of how we promote spiritual development:  Planning activities and learning experiences for a variety of world celebrations, including Diwali, Chinese new year, Christmas, and Easter  We provide the children with real life experiences of different religions and cultures  Using music and quiet time to encourage reflection at the end of the day and during assembly  Circle time to encourage discussions about personal experiences and beliefs  Using behaviour systems, rewards and celebration assemblies to develop self esteem.

Moral Development At Chesterton Primary School, we aim to provide learning opportunities that will enable pupils to:  Recognise the unique value of each individual.

 Listen and respond appropriately to the views of others  Gain the confidence to cope with setbacks and learn from mistakes.  Take initiative and act responsibly with consideration for others.  Distinguish between right and wrong.  Show respect for the environment.  Make informed and independent judgements.

Examples of how we promote moral development:  Have clear classroom rules decided upon together at the start of the school year.  Modelling effectively right and wrong behaviour, and discussing consequences of each.  Using stories and books to discuss various morals and ‘right and wrong’.  Children take part in Social Stories groups to ensure that they have a good understanding of risk and dangers/right and wrong  Using circle time to develop skills for listening and talking with each other and valuing each other’s points of views.  We allow our children to embrace a wide range of learning behaviours through our 7 C’s of Chesterton

Social Development At Chesterton Primary School, we aim to promote opportunities that will enable pupils to:  Develop an understanding of their individual and group identity.  Begin to understand the need for social justice and a concern for the disadvantaged.  Learn to cope with different relationships with our peers.  Our children develop confidence because their opinions are valued, we provide the children with opportunities to showcase their talents and skills Tuesday 11th February 2014 To show our families all the fantastic work we have been doing with Mrs Jackson today we had a dance recital. Our families came to watch us perform our favourite dance pieces. We were a little bit nervous but we had worked really hard to learn our dances and really enjoyed performing for our families.

Examples of how we promote moral development:  Through assemblies and charity fundraisers, we talk about and discuss people who are worse off than ourselves and how we can help them e.g. Children in Need events.  Visits from our PCSOs and Police Officers to help us learn how our community is helped by various people.  Using Social Stories and Time to Talk to help children cope with difficult relationships with their peers, or to develop skills to make new friends.

Cultural Development At Chesterton Primary School, we aim to promote opportunities that will enable pupils to:  Recognise the value and richness of cultural diversity in Britain, and how these influenced individuals and society.

 Recognise Christianity as a world-wide faith.  Develop an understanding of their social and cultural environment.

Examples of how we promote moral development:  Attending Christmas services at the local church  We learn about different cultures and celebrate our children’s home lives, we encourage our parents to come into school and to share information with us  Attending assemblies from the local religious leaders  Taking part in plays and assemblies surrounding key events in the Christian calendar, e.g.

Christmas Nativity Play and Easter  Inviting Religious Leaders into school to help us celebrate our richly diverse school Wednesday 2nd April 2014 Mr de Vaux came to visit us today; we spent the morning learning about why Christian’s celebrate Easter. Mr de Vaux also had a friend (Robin the Answer Boy) with him for a very special assembly.

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We invite our parents into school to share their passions and expertise with the children Tuesday 4th February 2014 Today we worked with Maruska’s Mum to start a new art project. We are making a piece of art based on our school logo. We have heard about how to use a paint brush and how to get ready to paint. We were very excited to have a go and work together to create some wonderful art work.

Group discussions and circle time will give pupils opportunities to:  Talk about personal experiences and feelings.  Express and clarify their own ideas and beliefs.  Speak about difficult events, eg bullying, death etc.  Share thoughts and feelings with other people.  Explore relationships with friends/family/others.  Consider others needs and behaviour.  Show empathy.  Develop self-esteem and a respect for others.  Develop a sense of belonging.  Develop the skills and attitudes that enable pupils to develop socially, morally, spiritually and culturally – eg empathy, respect, open mindedness, sensitivity, critical awareness, etc.

At Chesterton Primary School, we also provide opportunities to:  Listen and talk to each other.  Learn an awareness of treating all as equals, and accepting people who are physically or mentally different.  Agree and disagree.  Take turns and share equipment.  Work co-operatively and collaboratively.  We have an open door policy, we value and welcome contributions from the Parents and wider Community that will help to enhance the children’s learning and school experiences.  Support others, we are proud to support local and national charities so that our children understand how to look after other, supporting charities also allows our children to appreciate the lives they lead and the things that they have.

Friday 14th March 2014 The last 2 weeks we have been taking part in the Big Pedal. Today we did our pedalaton, we rode our bikes and scooters around the playground to raise money for The British Heart Foundation and for Sustran and we raised over £320!

Links with the wider community     

Visitors are welcomed our School.

Links with the Local Methodist Church are fostered, we join in with the Chesterton Christmas Light Switch On The development of a strong home-school link is regarded as very important, enabling parents and all staff to work in an effective partnership to support the child.

Children will be taught to appreciate their local environment and to develop a sense of responsibility to it.

Events are put on to include parents in school life, such as Parent’s forums, open days, learning workshops and ‘inspire’ curriculum days.

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We work with other schools as part of the CB4 Inspire Cluster Friday 14th February 2014 Today Catharine from We Sing came to visit us. Catharine taught us how to warm up our voices and make clear sounds. We also learnt about rhythm and had a turn on a Djembe drum. Catharine was very impressed by how well we sang.

Thursday 3rd April 2014 Today we went to Chesterton College to take part in ‘We Sing’. We have been learning the songs all term and today we got to sing them with lots of other children from all the local schools.

Opportunity for including social, moral, spiritual and cultural within Chesterton Primary School within the Curriculum English · Listening to and reading a large variety of books and stories to provide children with a wide knowledge and understanding of different people, places and situations, as well as give an appreciation of language and literature. · Drama and stories which create opportunities for moral judgements. · Shared activities – shared reading, group drama, shared writing that lead to an understanding of an appreciation of the importance of the group and other people's point of view. · Knowledge of our language and the importance and value of other languages and cultures. · Awareness of traditional tales and their cultural background.

Mathematics · Group work on a shared topic or investigation promoting an appreciation of the input of all members of the group. · The promotion of positive attitudes towards mathematics through appropriate groupings. · Providing children with a variety of opportunities to apply mathematics independently in ‘nonethreatening’ situations, so they can learn by making mistakes.

I.C.T. · Working together to create complete a programme. · Researching religious artefacts on the website. · Setting up e-mail with another school from a different country. · Following the Internet Access Policy.

Science · The development of an understanding of our place in the great scheme of things by studying space or life processes. · An appreciation of moral questions as scientific knowledge increases e.g. the use of animals for research. · An awareness of the cultural background of science History · The study of artefacts, buildings, churches etc. gives children a sense of their place in the historical scheme of things. It also helps to develop an awareness of beauty and aesthetics. · Moral issues can be considered. For example, was it right that war was fought or that children were forced to work in factories and mines in Victorian Britain, or that Anne Frank was forced into hiding? · Studying the cultures of other times – Egyptians, Romans etc. builds an awareness of the value and importance of other societies and cultures and the relative value and importance of our own. It also stresses the interdependence of cultures.

Geography · The study of different localities helps children to understand the background, way of life and values etc. of different people and cultures. For example the Inuits (Eskimo) and their way of life and values are to a large degree the result of habitat – as is our own. · Tolerance of other people’s differences, overcoming stereotyping, racism and prejudice can all be highlighted through the study of different peoples and their way of life. · Local studies will encourage an awareness of the child's place, family, home, dependency upon other individuals, people and cultures and needs in the great scheme of things. · Environmental issues and concerns can be discussed – what are the effects and the issues involved in urbanising an area.

Design Technology · The aesthetic aspect of good design is an important area, as is the question 'How will this affect the environment?' · Appreciating design in nature. · The study of technologies from different cultures – historical and geographical – and how these have evolved provides important lessons in cultural awareness. · Group working – sharing of equipment and designing together. · Promoting equality of opportunity and providing an awareness of areas that have gender issues e.g. activities that are historically female such as textile studies, encouraging girls to use equipment that has been traditionally male dominated.

Art · Studying great works of art can give an insight into the culture of other people and provide a strong link with the past. · Art can provide a valuable tool to study the past and make social or moral comment on it for example, what do the people in works by Lowry tell us about the social conditions of the time? · Multicultural art, the art of different religions, the art of ancient societies all reinforce the value of societies other than our own and help us to appreciate their value and the value of our own. · The appreciation of great works of art and the appreciation of our own attempts helps to build up an awareness of aesthetics and gives an uplifting experience.

Music · Listening to music, performing, joining in with it gives pleasure, lifts spirits and has an emotional dimension that children need to experience. Music experienced in our services and assemblies helps the pupils in their spirituality.

· Listening to and appreciating the great music of our culture and its folk music builds an important awareness of our culture and that of other lands. Music of other cultures is important for the same reasons. · Music of the fields, sea shanties, slave songs etc. can be used to build an awareness of the importance of music and its place in social history and the accompanying moral and social questions that arise out of it. · Group music making is an important social activity – working together and experiencing the same feelings together.