British Values and Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural (SMSC) Curriculum

As with any important part of our children’s learning, opportunities to promote British Values and SMSC are planned for through our curriculum planning and our ongoing school systems and routines.

At Infant Level, British Values would constitute the inclusion of the following as part of our children’s school experience.

Democracy: Listening to children’s and parent’s voice as part of our ongoing self-improvement, learning how to make rules for a purpose, learning how to work collaboratively so all voices are heard. Our school behaviour policy is clear that children are expected to contribute and co-operate, taking into account the views of others and children worked with our staff to put together their expected behaviours for a safe and happy school.

The Rule of Law: We consistently reinforce our high expectations of children. Children are taught the value and reasons behind our expectations (rules) and that they are there to protect us. They learn that everyone has a responsibility and that there are consequences when rules are broken. This is reinforced in assemblies and PSHE sessions.

Individual Liberty: Within school, children are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school, we educate and provide boundaries for young children to make choices safely, through our provision of a safe environment and empowering teaching. Children are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms.

Mutual Respect: Part of our school ethos and behaviour policy has revolved around our shared Values, one of which is ‘Respect’. Children are taught this caring, sharing and listening to others. The staff help children to understand how to show respect by modelling respect and talking about how actions/words can affect others.

Tolerance of those of Different Faiths and Beliefs:  We aim to enhance children’s understanding of different faiths and beliefs by learning about a range of celebrations throughout the year. Where possible we use the cultural capital of our children to promote diversity and tolerance throughout school. Diversity is explicitly taught through our assembly program where we ensure children have access to information about different celebrations and festivals around the world. We follow the Hampshire Syllabus “Living Difference” and block our RE teaching into contained units so that children get a deeper understanding of the concepts covered.

The Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural development of our children is interwoven throughout our curriculum.

We have mapped out our provision for SMSC in the same way as we have done our Safeguarding curriculum so that we have clear links to learning and activities that promote the building of skills and knowledge which impact on our children’s social, moral, spiritual and cultural development as they move through school. When planning subjects across the curriculum, teachers make reference to the British Values or Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural content that can be incorporated into each unit of learning within their planning so that we ensure that children have access to their full curriculum entitlement.