Social, Moral, Spiritual & Cultural Development (SMSC)

At The Brent we use SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural) to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils. SMSC prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.

Our children are supported to develop a Growth Mindset - they think positively, believe in themselves, are confident and assertive. They go for their goals with a ‘can do’ attitude and belief in themselves. Our school’s ethos prepares pupils positively for life in Modern Britain and promotes the fundamental British values.

We use SMSC to encourage our children to make sense of the world and other people; think carefully about how they interact with other people; and the sort of person they are/the person they are becoming. SMSC also overlaps with many other areas of school life, including equality and diversity, safeguarding and the prevention of extremism.

During their time at The Brent children will have learned:

About a variety of different careers, breaking gender stereotypes and adopting a ‘dream big’ attitude to aspirations.
How to discuss, debate and critique ideas respectfully
To be respectful of different cultures and religions.
To know they have a responsibility to others and their wider community.
Have a strong sense of moral-self, knowing the difference between right and wrong.
Ways to enhance and apply a Growth mindset attitude to learning.
Form positive relationships with others – developing empathy and respect for others.

Our Social Education Journey Through The Brent

One of the ways we develop our children’s social skills is through our termly debate question. Their debate questions are influenced by their termly topic or English focus text so children have a deeper understanding of the subject matter. We progress oracy within The Brent by giving children in each year groups the opportunity to express themselves in the following ways:

EYFS

To speak audibly so they can be heard and understood
To use talk in play to practice new vocabulary
To use ‘because’ to develop their ideas
To look at someone who is speaking to them

Year 1

To use the appropriate tone of voice in the right context. E.g. speaking calmly when resolving an issue in the playground.
To use vocabulary appropriate specific to the topic at hand
To offer reasons for their opinions
Listens to others and is willing to change their mind based on what they have heard

Year 2

To start to use gesture to support the delivery of ideas
To adapt how they speak in different situations
To ask questions to find out more about a subject
To start to develop an awareness of audience e.g. what might interest a certain group

Year 3

Deliberately varies tone of voice in order to convey meaning.
To be able to use specialist language to describe their own and others’ talk
To offer opinions that aren’t their own.
To adapt the content of their speech for a specific audience.

Year 4

To consider movement when addressing an audience.
To carefully consider the words and phrasing they use to express their ideas and how this supports the purpose of talk.
To be able to give supporting evidence
To use more natural and subtle prompts for turn taking.

Year 5

To project their voice to large audience.
To use an increasingly sophisticated range of sentence stems with fluency and accuracy.
To identify when a discussion is going off topic and to be able to bring it back on track
Listening for extended periods of time

Year 6

To speak fluently in front of an audience.
To vary sentence structures and length for effect when speaking.
To use humour effectively
To construct a detailed argument or complex narrative.

Our Moral Education Journey Through The Brent

Each class creates their own class charter at the beginning of the year, which identifies the agreed code of conduct. Each member of the class is invited to sign as a symbol of their commitment to taking responsibility for their part in upholding their community’s rules. This allows each child to recognise their personal rights as an individual, but also their responsibility in giving other people their rights.

Moral education involves pupils:

Investigating values and ethical issues to develop their own moral principles;
Exploring behaviours and their consequences in order to recognise right and wrong and to make right choices for themselves;
Having a range of opportunities to express their own views and understand that others may hold different views or beliefs.

Our Spiritual Education Journey Through The Brent

Spiritual education involves the growth of children’s sense of self, their unique potential, their strengths and areas for development, and their will to achieve. We develop spiritual education by challenging stereotypes and raising aspirations. We discuss our ‘future selves’ within our Dreams and Goals Jigsaw topic as well as during our school’s Careers week. We engage with members of the local community to expose our children to a diverse range of careers. Spiritual education is concerned with their search for meaning and purpose in life and involves pupils:

Experiencing wonders of the world (man-made and natural) to develop fascination, awe and wonder;
Exploring the values and beliefs of others to develop empathy and respect;
Having a range of experiences to develop understanding of human feelings and emotions;
Using imagination and creativity in learning to develop and celebrate individuality.

Our Cultural Education Journey Through The Brent

At the Brent we work closely within our school community and wider community to celebrate the diverse culture within our school. We work closely with families to ensure our curriculum reflects the families within our class/school. We do this by developing our children’s understanding and respect for diversity, as well as their ability to challenge assumptions and negative stereotypes. We invite parents to speak about their culture and celebrations with the children and have books available in each class reflecting different cultures and celebrations. We encourage children to speak openly about their time outside of school and reflect. We expose our children to a wide range of religious and cultural celebrations throughout the year.