SMSC

Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Values

At Penn Wood Primary School, we are committed to promoting Spiritual, Moral, Social and Culture (SMSC) values through a values based education.  These values are supported by our work as a Rights Respecting School.  The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child forms an integral part of everything we do in school.

SMSC values are at the heart of our work at Penn Wood Primary School. We recognise that these values are integral to fostering a climate which is conducive to learning as well as being the building blocks to forge and sustain strong relationships across the whole school community.

SMSC values are referred to and promoted by all both in and out of the classroom in our school rules, at School council meetings, Eco- warrior meetings and in assemblies. Some of our assemblies explore different faiths and others focus on the lives of notable people from varying socio-economic, ethnic and religious backgrounds. The SMSC values are taught also through the Jigsaw PSHE scheme which is delivered to all pupils from year 1 to 6.

The Jigsaw scheme brings together Personal, Social, Health and Economic education, emotional literacy, social skills and spiritual development. It holds children at its heart. Its cohesive vision helps children understand and value who they are and how they fit and contribute to the world.

In addition to these PSHE sessions, we work closely with lots of outside agencies. Over the last year, the Youth Offending team has carried out workshops for our older pupils on youth violence and gangs (7/16). The police have spoken to our pupils about car safety and the need to wear seatbelts. As part of anti-bullying week, SEBDOS was in involved delivering workshops about internet safety and anti- bullying to both pupils and parents. To our older pupils, DASH has runs sessions on safe relationships (10/15) and domestic abuse (11/15). Biannually, all pupils participate in the NSPCC Speak out Stay safe programme. Supporting literature and websites are regularly available on our school website for parents to access.

At Penn Wood School, we also strongly believe in working closely with our community. In recent years, pupils have been involved in litter picks and in performing songs and dances as well as sharing stories and poems to the old age pensioners from Manor Park day centre at our Harvest celebrations. Our inclusion team responds to community needs on an individual basis with regard to community cohesion, drugs education, internet safety, domestic abuse and support. Our inclusion leader regularly attends Community champion meetings and is aware of ongoing local issues (FGM and CSE). As a school, we also work with Aik Saith, a charity dedicated to promoting social change and unifying people from all communities, faiths and backgrounds. Projects with Aik Saith have included exploring community cohesion, mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs (“Adventures in Interfaith, Greeks and Classroom heroes”, Spring 2014). Another project, (“Magna Carta, Awesome charter” project with year 4 pupils in Spring 2016) focused on the theme of equality and rights and responsibilities.

Opportunities for training are regularly sought to support teachers with the promotion and the development of SMSC values in school. Training has included Team teach training (5/1/15) ,Rob Long’s ‘Behaviour for Learning’ (5/13), FGM (9/15), Drugs (6/16), Mental health, resilience and attachment (6/16)  and Prevent training. Regular updates are shared in meetings and PSHE sessions with children are tailored to meet specific needs when required.