Toftwood Infant and Junior Schools are proud to have achieved the SMSC award for our SMSC provision across the federation.
Evidence of our SMSC work can be found in many areas of our curriculum and wider school activities and provision but please see the SMSC Statement below which outlines what SMSC is, why it is fundamental to supporting our children and where to look to see evidence of this work across the federation.
SMSC Statement
Rationale
At the Toftwood Infant and Junior School Federation, we recognise that social, moral, spiritual and cultural development is central to the education of all children and is an integral part of the whole curriculum and ethos of the federation. It is reflected in the behaviours of individuals and in their interactions and also in the provision of teaching, resources and learning environments.
Social development relates to the development of knowledge and understanding and the acquisition of skills in relating to others. This begins with family and friends and extends to the wider community beyond. Children are taught to respect each other and to appreciate each other’s similarities and differences. An awareness and understanding of, and respect for, the environments in which they live is also developed. We look at building an understanding of the world we live in and different types of relationships and communities so we can be successful in the future.
Moral development relates particularly to developing knowledge and understanding of right and wrong. Children learn to make choices in their behaviour through developing knowledge of boundaries and understanding of consequences. They learn by example, group activities, PATHS activities and real life situations.
Spiritual development is concerned with the exploration and development of feelings and emotions; personality, individuality and uniqueness; and knowledge and understanding of their own and different beliefs and cultures.
Cultural development is concerned with encountering the defining aspects of different cultures. Explorations of values, beliefs, customs, foods, artefacts and stories allow the pupils to make comparisons and develop knowledge of lifestyles and choices of others.
Strategies
SMSC development is taught through and reflected in all areas of the curriculum and through all aspects of school life. Pupils are provided with the opportunities to gain in knowledge and understanding and to develop the skills they need to participate in the life of the diverse community in which they live. For example:
Social
Staff at mealtimes and on the playground promote appropriate social interaction. We have an agreed joint lunch break to promote cross school working with opportunities for older children to run clubs and support younger children in their play.
PATHS sessions feature in all classes promoting turn taking and social interaction.
The PATHS and RSE curriculum of work contain units on Health and Wellbeing, Relationships and Living in the Wider World.
Educational visits and visitors from within the community and beyond their own environments give children the chance to experience different social situations. They gain the skills to be an integral and successful part of the world around them.
There is additional provision at lunchtimes from those who may find social situations difficulty.
The children and the school support different charities in the year and learn about them, such as collecting for the local food bank, Nelson’s Journey and the Poppy Appeal.
Appropriate support and interventions, such as speech and language support, social skills groups and games take place across the year to support children to be successful communicators and members of the community.
Moral
There are agreed reward systems in place so that all children can celebrate a range of achievements in and out of school. We celebrate the achievements of all of our pupils within the school community and on the website, in the media and with our friends.
Ongoing discussions and analysis are held to discuss difficult behaviour to ensure that all staff are supported and that ideas are shared. Staff are always informed of anything relating to a child in their class that may have an impact on their health, development and well being.
Behaviour plans are agreed and implemented to support children.
The PATHS/PSHE scheme of work and our Relationships and Sex Education curriculum has units dealing with issues to do with rules, negotiating difficult situations, emotions, caring for one another, making and keeping friends, relationships and living in a community.
Spiritual
The RE scheme of work contains units on celebrations, festivals and worship from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism.
Visitors from a variety of faiths come to take assemblies and lead experiences such as a wedding or a meal for Shabbat.
The MfL curriculum looks at different cultures across the world and includes opportunities to explore the language and culture of the children in our school.
Children are encouraged to take part in periods of reflection at different times throughout the school week.
Through PATHS, assemblies and circle time activities, children are helped to gain an understanding of their feelings and emotions and their likely impact on themselves and others.
Pupils are encouraged to appreciate the awe and wonder of the world around them whenever appropriate occasions arise e.g. looking at beautiful objects in an assembly, looking for signs of Spring on a environment walks, visiting a planetarium in Science work on the Earth and beyond, using virtual reality to explore environments further afield than their own country.
Cultural
There are regular celebrations of religious festivals over the year including harvest, Divali, Christmas, Easter, Eid, Chinese New Year.
Many subjects have units on other cultures and religions where appropriate. There are also extra curriculum events such as a Norfolk Day, environment days.
English includes units on stories from other cultures and we also relate this to other subject areas such as History.
All pupils are accepted equally and play an active part in the school community regardless of their colour, religion or gender.
Children participate in a range of artistic, sporting and other cultural opportunities provided by the school.
Where you can find SMSC in Toftwood Infant and Junior School Federation
- The curriculum as a whole
- The Religious Education Curriculum
- The PATHS/PSHE Curriculum
- Relationships and Sex Education Curriculum
- Circle Time
- Assemblies
- Behaviour and Prevention of Bullying policy
- Structured and personalised reward systems
- Extra-curricular activities
- Educational visits
- Pupil Voice (Student Council)
- Special days (fundraising, cultural experiences and immersion days)
- Lunchtime Lounge
- Small group interventions
- Different zones of the playground
- Our work on supporting mental health and well being
British Values
We promote ‘British Values’ through our spiritual, moral, social and cultural education which underpins the federation’s curriculum and supports the development of the ‘whole child’.
We recognise that such development is most successful when those values and attitudes are promoted by all the staff and provide a model of behaviour for our children. We promote this with parents as they too should model the behaviours they would like to see.
The curriculum in all phases offers broad and balanced opportunities.
‘British Values’ have been identified as:
Democracy:
The ability to understand and communicate are the most important areas of learning. We ensure that pupils are given a ‘voice’ to communicate. This ‘voice’ could be using words, objects, photographs, pictures, symbols or signing,.
We empower our pupils by giving them opportunities to make choices about the things that they believe to be important. By valuing each ‘voice‘ and by listening and responding to that voice we demonstrate that we support democracy and liberty.
We have an active School Council across the Federation and a link Governor to support their work.
Rule of Law:
We involve pupils in setting codes of behaviour; helping pupils to make decisions and choices that are acceptable to the federation community and society at large.
Children are helped to learn to manage their behaviour and take responsibility for their actions. Staff are committed to providing a consistent and predictable environment within the federation and beyond. We can help many children to understand the connection between actions and consequences. This type of environment enables pupils to feel safe and secure; this in turn, promotes the optimum conditions for learning and personal well being to take place.
Individual Liberty:
Children are encouraged to become good and valued citizens. We do this by supporting each child to become as independent as possible. We endeavour to demonstrate that everyone has rights; this includes the right to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to ideas or activities. Many of our children will be able to take responsibility for particular roles and to understand that with certain rights comes certain responsibilities. Learning to do things independently is an important part of learning to understand yourself. We support others by participating in charitable events such as Red Nose Day/Comic Relief and Children in Need. We believe that promoting a caring and helpful environment and being independent boosts and nurtures a healthy self-esteem.
Mutual Respect:
We promote each child’s inclusion in activities, settings and locations that are appropriate to them individually to meet their needs. Within school, children work with a range of people and interactions with others are always positively promoted. This may include working with external coaches, theatre groups etc. The curriculum is personalised and planned for pupils and may include transitioning within the range of resources and places on the site and going into the community to meet with a range of people in a variety of situations which include community events and shared participation with other schools/colleges.
We believe it is important to facilitate opportunities to be part of the community as the pupils, families and staff have much to offer in the development of community cohesion.
Tolerance of different faiths and beliefs:
We are part of a federation and local community where each person is respected and valued equally without regard to ability, gender, faith, heritage or race.
Cultural appreciation and development forms part of our curriculum. We place great emphasis on providing experiences and participation in events and celebrations to broaden all pupils’ experiences and awareness of others.
Our assemblies help all pupils to find out about themselves and others linking their lives to the communities in which they belong.
Pupils are encouraged to experience British Culture through our curriculum themes. For example, pupils have visited many local places. As a school, we take part in sporting activities which helps to instil ‘fair play’ and engender a ‘team spirit’.
Although some of our children may find it difficult to articulate their feelings and concerns; staff are aware of changes in behaviour for individuals, changes in personal circumstances and well-being that may indicate anxiety. If they are concerned about a child our accepted practice links to the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy which entrusts a duty of care to all staff to actively protect and promote the welfare of children. Regular safeguarding updates are shared with staff.
The staff work closely with parents, carers and other professionals to ensure that the pupils at the Toftwood infant and Junior School Federation are happy, well cared for and enabled to learn the skills they need to live a fulfilling life as part of their community.