SMSC stands for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. All schools in England must now show how well they support children’s SMSC development.

Our Mission Statement for SMSC

At Fort Royal we recognise that the personal development of students spiritually, morally, socially and culturally plays a significant part in their ability to achieve and learn and prepares them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experience for adult life.

The four areas can be defined as:

Spiritual Development:

• Experiencing fascination, awe and wonder: Is shown by students’ sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them, including the intangible
• Exploring the values and beliefs of others: Is shown by students’ beliefs, religious or otherwise, which inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s feelings and values
•  Understanding human feelings and emotions: Is shown by students’ willingness to reflect on their experiences
•  Using imagination and creativity in learning: Is shown by students’ use of imagination and creativity in their learning

Moral development:

• Investigating moral values and ethical issues: Is shown by students’ interest in investigating, and offering reasoned views about, moral and ethical issues
•  Recognising right and wrong and applying it: Is shown by students’ ability to recognise the difference between right and wrong and their readiness to apply this understanding in their own lives
• Understanding the consequences of actions: Is shown by students’ understanding of the consequences of their actions

Social development:

• Developing personal qualities and using social skills: Is shown by students’ used of a range of social skills in different contexts, including working and socialising with students from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds
•  Participating, cooperating and resolving conflict: Is shown by students’ willingness to participate in a variety of social settings, cooperating well with others and being able to resolve conflicts effectively
• Understanding how communities and societies function: Is shown by students’ interest in, and understanding of, the way communities and societies function at a variety of levels

Cultural development

• Exploring, understanding and respecting diversity: Is shown by students’ 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, nationals and global communities
•  Participating in and responding to cultural activities: Is shown by students’ willingness to participate in, and respond to, for example, artistic, musical, sporting, mathematical, technological, scientific and cultural opportunities
• Understanding and appreciating personal influences: Is shown by students’ understanding and appreciation of the wide range of cultural influences, artistic, sporting, and cultural, that have shaped their own heritage and celebrating diversity.

Where can you find SMSC at Fort Royal School?

We work to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development considering how school can support the pupil and what targets they need to meet to achieve their goals. We have been using Pupils’ School Council’ and ‘Eco Council’ to identify what aspects of school can be better for each pupil and develop plans to successfully enhance pupils experience in school.

Opportunities are created for the development of Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development through the curriculum in each subject area and in other wider school opportunities:

• The curriculum as a whole
• Whole school Hullabaloo days
• PSHECC curriculum
• Assemblies
• The Fort Royal -Behaviour Policy
• EHCP reviews (pupil views)
• Values tree
• Structured reward systems
• Educational visits
• Pupil voice (e.g. The School Council, Eco council)
• School newspaper
• Regular half termly newsletters from each class