Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Learning at Stoke Park (SMSC)

At Stoke Park Infant School Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural (SMSC) development underpins all aspects of our board and balanced curriculum, therefore, enabling children to develop the skills and attitudes encapsulated in our values and golden threads.

Our vision for SMSC is to raise the aspirations of our children by nurturing a passion for learning, enriching their learning experiences, providing the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in adult life, and enabling them to secure outcomes which exceed their expectations.

We want to create confident, resilient, and well-rounded adults who have an aspiration for self-improvement and are able to compete equally with their peers in a world beyond school life. We recognise that all children need to develop spiritually, morally, socially and culturally. This development allows them to make sense of their world. Our highly engaging curriculum helps children develop an informed and balanced view on world events, beliefs and values of others. We endeavour to prepare our students for their future when becoming respectful individuals, life-long learners and active citizens in a modern British society.

SMSC stands for spiritual, moral, social and cultural education. The SMSC (spiritual, moral, cultural and social) curriculum can be described as the “hidden curriculum”. It is all the things that we do in school to build up children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding, thoughts and experiences.  It is not taught as a standalone lesson, rather it may be part of Religious Education, Physical Education, Personal, Social and Health Education AND part of the ethos of the school which children experience on a daily basis. SMSC is now highlighted by the government as a key means of promoting basic British values and creating well rounded individual who can contribute towards a modern Britain.

At Stoke Park Infant School we research, debate, and share the best ways to engage, motivate and inspire our children, and consider different teaching approaches to help children develop the behaviours and attitudes encapsulated in our RANGERS Skills and Rules. Our RANGERS Skills and Rules clearly set out the skills and values that we want our children experience and build on as they move through school.