Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development

What is Spirtual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development?

SMSC is about developing the whole person. As our pupils move through the school, we are committed at Bishop Monkton CE Primary School, to developing not only their academic standards and levels of achievement, but also their spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness. We aim to provide opportunities for our children to form their own identity, their sense of place and purpose, giving them the confidence to question and discover who they are in the world and face the exciting challenges that lie ahead. Being a church school adds another dimension to our SMSC provision as our Christian ethos permeates all aspects of school life and underpins our values and mission. Pupils are encouraged to regard people of all faiths, races and cultures with respect and tolerance and understand that while different people may hold different views about what is "right" and "wrong", all people living in England are subject to its law. We aim to prepare our children for life in modern Britain, challenging stereotypes and celebrating diversity. Alongside our Christian values, we ensure British values are embedded in the work of the school and they are defined as:

• democracy
• rule of law
• individual liberty
• mutual respect
• tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

Collective Worship

We meet as a whole school every day for Collective Worship. During Collective Worship we explore faith and worship in a variety of ways: stories from the bible, discussion around our school values, hymn practice, current affairs and celebration of achievements. 

Worship Leaders

Our Worship Leaders play an active role in our Collective Worship time by leading prayers and helping to lead worship songs. The Worship Leaders also meet on a regular basis to discuss worship at our school and to reflect and pray. We also have creative sessions where we explore our own faith and beliefs.

Friday 26th January Worship Leader’s Group

In our Worship Leader’s group today we talked about the importance of friendship and how sometimes friendships can become broken. We spent some time reflecting on broken friendships and thought about whether we knew of any friendships that needed healing. We wrote the initials of people we knew who were experiencing broken friendships on the back of a chain of friendship people and then pinned these to our school cross. We then said prayers asking for god to heal broken friendships.