Spiritual Moral, Social and Cultural Development at Plashet School

At Plashet School, we recognise that the personal development of students, spiritually, morally, socially and culturally, plays a significant part in their ability to learn and achieve.  Therefore we aim to provide an education that provides students with opportunities to explore and develop their own values and beliefs and spiritual awareness while increasing their sense of responsibility, social justice and belonging as a British citizen.

The implementation of this policy is the responsibility of the Head Teacher and all members of staff, because it is accepted that the values and attitudes promoted by the staff influence the behaviour and attitudes within the school.  The quality of relationships and the atmosphere within the school reflect an appreciation of their shared values.  We therefore value any opportunity for SMSCD to be planned and delivered through a curriculum subject, through the pastoral curriculum and all other aspect of school life.

Context

Plashet School is a secular maintained school that serves a community where, for many people, religion is a significant feature of their identity.  Plashet is a fully inclusive school; however 82% of our students would describe themselves as Muslim.  Plashet School is located in the heart of East Ham, Newham; a multi-cultural and multi-faith community.  As a school, we embrace the many opportunities to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our students and therefore ensure our students leave school prepared for life in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and religiously plural society.

General Aims of this policy

To ensure that everyone connected with the school is aware of our values and principles.
To ensure a consistent approach to the delivery of SMSCD issues through the academic and pastoral curriculums and the general life of the school.

Definitions

The Ofsted Subsidiary Guidance (January 2013) defines SMSCD as:

Spiritual

Students’ spiritual development is shown by their:

  • 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 worlds around them, including the intangible use of imagination and creativity in their learning
  • willingness to reflect on their experiences

Moral

Students’ moral development is shown by their:

  • 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 actions;
  • interest in investigating, and offering reasoned views, about moral and ethical issues

Social

Students’ social development is shown by their:

  • 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

Cultural

Students’ cultural development is shown by their:

  • 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.

SMSCD Across the Curriculum

To enable students to develop their sense of spirituality, moral understanding, social ability and cultural understanding we aim to provide learning opportunities across the academic and pastoral curriculums. SMSCD through Learning – Our curriculum is designed to:

Spiritual: 
Allow students to explore beliefs and experiences; respect shared values; discover oneself and the surrounding world, foster student understanding of emotion, independence and belonging, use imagination and creativity and reflect on the world and societies around them. Moral: Teach students what is right and wrong, recognise shared moral values, understand consequences, investigate moral and ethical issues, listen to and respond appropriately to the views of others, offer reasoned views, develop reslience and the capacity to learn from mistakes. Social: Develop an understanding of individual and group identity, use social skills in different contexts, work well with others, resolve conflicts, promote and celebrate the concepts of equality, justice and tolerance, support the management of feelings and emotions, understand how communities work and contribute to British society. Cultural: Allow students to recognise the richness of cultural diversity in Britain, understand how this influences individuals and society, promote British values of justice, democracy, respect and tolerance, support students to appreciate cultural incfluences, allow students to participate in culture opportunities, understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity. Development in SMSC will take place across all curriculum areas.  Lesson design will allow students to, while teaching will encourage students to recognise the different dimensions of their learning, reflect on the significance of what they are learning, and to recognise how this might enrich their sense of self, it will also support students to address any challenges there may be to their atttitudes and lifestyle.  We are a multi-faith/multi-cultural school.  Teaching and learning at Plashet School reflects this.  Our students recognise the tenants of justice, democracy, respect and tolerance as core British values.  This is reinforced by all curriculum subjects through effective teaching and learning. The curriculum is audited on a regular basis to ensure SMSCD is integrated into all aspects of teaching and learning.

British Values

All members of staff at Plashet School maintain the highest expectations of our students, but most importantly we expect our students to have the highest expectations for each other.  This is recognised in our students and staff code of conduct and our behaviour systems.  Students are expected to model the behaviour we would wish them to emulate as participating members of British Society.  In this respect students are provided with a wide range of opportunities to learn about and understand their responsibilities as citizens of the UK and to understand the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.

Curriculum Enrichment

The enrichment activities on offer give every student the opportunity to discover their passion and exploit their interests while promoting both happiness and motivation.  We understand that a high level of academic performance must be underpinned by motivated and curious minds.  We believe that in providing challenging learning experiences through the enrichment programme, we might promote a culture in which all students are engaged therefore focused on the development of key behaviours for the future.  We recognize each learner is unique, and therefore, all learning experiences must be examined in ways that take into account the interests of the individual.

Therefore our enrichment programme is deliberately designed to support our school curriculum and the interests of our students.  It is intended to offer our students a range of activities in which students might participate in, and respond to, for example, artistic, mustical, sporting, mathematical, technological, scientific and cultural opportunities.  Students are given the opportunity to practice a range of social skills in different contexts and to participate in a variety of social settings and demonstrate cooperation with others.  Ofsted (2014) have stated the importance of an “Appropriate, broad and balanced curriculum to help prepare young people for life in modern Britain”.

Other enrichment provisions include extra curricular clubs, sports competitions and tournaments, school productions, specific science and maths events including a dedicated Science and Maths celebration week, a range of STEM activities and whole school Christmas, Eid, Diwali and International Women’s Day events.

Collective Worship

Collective worship is a clearly defined time distinct from curriculum time.  Our collective worship programme is designed to meet the needs of a multi-faith community, while supporting shared values and learning about each other.  Some aspects of collective worship are confessional acts of worship, while others are non-confessional.  To ensure Collective Worship provides opportunities for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development it is planned around a wide variety of reflective themes and topics, uses diverse stimuli and resources and provides students with the opportunity to ‘respond’ independently, collectively and at their own level.  All acts of collective worship follow and assembly theme for the week.  This theme also forms the basis of Year Group assemblies.  Reflection time is also delivered through tutor time, Citizenship, Personal, Social, Health Education (CPSHE).

Inclusion

Plashet School is a fully inclusive school.   In this respect our school represents wider society and supports students in developing the social skills they will need in the future.  Where the curriculum allows, we are dedicated to teaching in mixed attainment student groupls believing this reflects the social mix of the world outside of the classroom.  We believe this form of teaching provides the best educational experience and life preparation for our students.

Our students benefit from a wide range of programmes targeted to support and nurture the development of our most vulnerable students so they are able to achieve.  This includes SEND, EAL and specialist BESD support.  In addition, students benefit from a dedicated Coaching and Mentoring Department, Educational Welfare Officer and School Nurse.

Our student representative structure is a way in which students are involved in the running of the school.  Students work in partnernship with the school leadership team, staff and parents for the benefit of the school and our students.  We operate a comprehensive student leadership programme.  The school council is made up of representatives from all year groups.  We also operate a prefect system that all students are entitled to apply for when they are in Year 10.

We are a multi-cultural and multi-faith school and are absolutely committed to this.  We believe all students should have equal access to the curriculum and pride ourselves on a faith sensitive outlook so all students might access the curriculum comfortably in Physical Education, PRE and sex and relationships education for example.  As a whole school we celebrate a wide range of different religious and cultural events.  Minimised by much of the work we do to promote British Values, incidents of bullying, racism and homophobia are rare.  In addition we train selected students as Peer Mediators, this effectively supports students to resolve conflict, protect each other and learn the skills to avoid conflict and keep safe.

Links in the wider community

Links are made with the wider community wherever it is deemed appropriate and might enhance any opportunities available to our students.  This might include speakers as part of the taught curriculum, for example in CPSHE, or as part of the pastoral curriculum, for example inspirational speakers and within collective worship.  All curriculum subjects offer school visits to support and enhance students’ learning.

All links with the wider community are strictly monitored.  Any application to work with links outside of the immediate school community is subject to the School Safeguarding Policy and Plashet School visit regulations respectively.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Provision for SMSCD is monitored and reviewed on a regular basis.

This is achieved by:

  • Monitoring of teaching and learning opportunities throughout curriculum areas
  • SMSCD development targets being part of the school development plan.
Plashet School