SMSC concerns itself with helping children to learn all about living in our world. It stands for Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development. This is not taught as a separate subject; instead it is an important element that runs through everything we do here at Michael Drayton. It is especially prevalent in RE, PSHE and Philosophy sessions. When we are planning our curriculum, we always plan in opportunities for learning in these areas that will help your child become a good citizen in our society.

 

Spiritual development encourages children to reflect on their own beliefs, religious or otherwise, and encourages a sense of enjoyment and fascination in their learning about themselves and the world around them. It is also shown through their creativity and imagination skills. Moral development is about learning the difference between right and wrong but also about developing articulate, rational views on ethical and moral issues affecting our world. Part of social development is building a willingness to work and communicate well with a wide range of children and adults. Sometimes this is in our own class but also carried out during our topics theme days where all year groups work alongside each other. We endeavour to create and sustain opportunities to work alongside other schools both near and far. We look at how societies form and function and how they have done so in the past. The children’s cultural development is extended through building understanding of the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped our heritage and we promote British values. We demonstrate, teach and expect our children to develop respect for cultural diversity and to understand and celebrate differences that may exist between different groups of people. Cultural development also consists of children relishing all opportunities available to them, including sporting, mathematical, artistic, musical, scientific and technological. Our huge range of extra-curricular clubs reflects this expectation.

 

We hope that our high expectations in SMSC ensures that we are creating reasoned, articulate and questioning people of the future who will strive to make the world we live in a better place while celebrating diversity in all cultures.