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Quick, regular SMSC ideas.

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First draft of generic starter/short tasks to support Lesson Planning. More to come...

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A whole school approach.

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A selection of guides and resources for auditing and implementing SMSC on a whole-school basis Please leave us feedback on our resources so that we can improve them further...

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SMSC documents.

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Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development - GOV.UK

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Cultural education, religious education and collective worship, promoting British values and citizenship in schools.

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From the Citizenship Foundation

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Every school in England must promote SMSC, which is particularly important to Ofsted. The SMSC Quality Mark for Primary and Secondary Schools aims to help schools recognise and review the development of SMSC.

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From the Red Cross Foundation

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Page not found - 404 | British Red Cross

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©2023 British Red Cross The British Red Cross Society, incorporated by Royal Charter 1908, is a charity registered in England and Wales (220949), Scotland (SC037738), Isle of Man (0752) and Jersey (430).

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Your thoughts?

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There aren't many headteachers who would tell a meeting of prospective parents that it would be fine for their child to get a B grade rather than an A, but Gary Lewis says he has no qualms about doing just that.

"I do it every year," says the principal of Kings Langley secondary school in Hertfordshire. "I'm not telling parents I'd be happy with their child getting a B if they were predicted an A. But what I do say is, rather than your child slogging their heart out, I'd prefer it if he or she spent time developing leadership skills or doing charity work, even if that meant not getting a higher grade."

The point is that education isn't all about results. And the strange thing is, says Lewis, he's never had anyone raise an objection. "Parents get it: they understand how important it is for their children to be rounded individuals with a developed moral compass."

Parents may get it, but for a long time there's been a widespread feeling that policymakers in the education world do not. This week a report is published calling for more of what its authors say matters most - not exam results and league tables, but the spiritual, moral, social and cultural aspects of education or, in a nutshell, the "soul" of a school.

"For far too long now, headteachers have been distracted from these aspects of their pupils' education by constant considerations around results, inspections and protocols," says Joe Hallgarten, one of the report's authors and head of education at the Royal Society of Arts, which was behind it. "But SMSC (spiritual, moral, social and cultural) is the very lifeblood of schooling. It provides young people with a set of characteristics and capabilities that enable them to cope with life.

"The overriding finding of our investigation is that, at precisely the time when SMSC might have most to contribute, it is losing prominence and being given neither space nor high value."

Hallgarten says that what goes into giving a school a "soul" actually helps pupils to achieve highly - in other words, it's not just focusing on results as such that gives the best exam outcomes.

Gary Lewis couldn't agree more: when he arrived at Kings Langley in 2002, he says, it was in the bottom 3% of schools in terms of achievement. "What we decided to concentrate on was building character. I said to parents, what I want is for your child to leave this school feeling confident and being resilient," he says. Today academic standards are twice what they were, and the school is oversubscribed. "In our school we hammer home the importance of stickability, empathy and self-regulation," he says. "They are fundamental, and much more so than results."

He believes the sorts of skills Ofsted might regard as "soft" - sociability, personal skills - could in the long term be the very attributes a young person needs for genuine, rounded success in life. "I'm highly critical of Ofsted; it has raised standards, but it has lost the plot in the way it has put all the emphasis on exam results."

Lewis is one of a number of heads, academics and other educationalists whose views were sought for the report, Schools with Soul: A New Approach to Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education. Its key recommendation is that the year 2015-16 should be designated a "year of reflection", with no big policy changes or new Ofsted frameworks, to allow staff and pupils to focus on deeper values and goals.

In addition, the report's authors say, there should be more consistency and rigour in inspecting SMSC provision in schools and a DfE working party should be set up to develop clear guidelines.

Guy Shears, principal of RSA-sponsored Arrow Vale academy in Redditch, was another headteacher to contribute. He would love a respite from the onslaught of announcements. Some give hardly any time for heads to react: the recent announcement about changes to policy on early entry on GCSEs was "unhelpful" as it meant heads had only a few weeks to change direction; similarly Ofsted guidance had been reissued three times since September. "It's impossible to keep up," he says.

Planning of the right content is crucial. "It's not enough to leave SMSC to chance in school life. It needs to be properly planned for, and programmes need to be designed to, for example, develop resilience, and to ensure that the pupils most in need are directed towards them."

One of the biggest worries the report voices is that SMSC provision is "in danger of moving to the margins of all but the most confident schools". And of the four different aspects of SMSC, it's the spiritual dimension that is most at risk of neglect.

"At a time when the number of adolescents in the UK diagnosed with depression has almost doubled in recent decades ... there is a strong case for protecting spaces for spiritual development because many aspects of spirituality, particularly practices like meditation, but also and most simply a richer experience of life's meaning, can serve to promote wellbeing," it says.

Patrick Garton, assistant headteacher at Cherwell school in Oxford, says spirituality is "much harder to tackle" in a non-faith school such as his. At Cherwell, he says, new pupils visit several different places of worship in Oxford to introduce them to the different faith traditions, and sixth-formers visit Auschwitz each year. "Some people think education is all about spreadsheets, but the truth is that you never get a child to do better unless you engage him or her as a human being," he says.

SMSC provision is particularly scant after the age of 14, says the report, because of exams "leaving little space to focus on wider development". And it points out that the narrowing of focus after 14 is at odds with the policy in other nations around the world, where a broadening-out of interests is much more common.

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Call for 'year off' so schools can search their souls | Joanna Moorhead

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There aren't many headteachers who would tell a meeting of prospective parents that it would be fine for their child to get a B grade rather than an A, but Gary Lewis says he has no qualms about doing just that. "I do it every year," says the principal of Kings Langley secondary school in Hertfordshire.

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9) A practical lesson with links to SMSC

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9) A practical lesson with links to SMSC

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ABOUT Sadako's Cranes for Peace is a teaching pack that enables primary and secondary students to learn the inspiring story of a young Japanese girl who attempted to make 1000 origami cranes (birds) as a sign of peace and good fortune after ...

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SMSC ideas, every week.

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Thought for the Week exemplar - Endurance

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Receive a weekly Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural activity-based PowerPoint incorporating recent news and calendar events within a literacy theme. This 25min tutorial/assembly PowerPoint will be sent directly to your email. Encouraging s...

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(This is a commercial product)

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SMSC stands for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. All schools in England must now show how well they support children's SMSC development.

What does each aspect of SMSC include?

At Cornerstones we define the aspects of SMSC as follows:

Spiritual: The opportunity to explore beliefs, experience and faiths, feelings and values; enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world; use imagination and creativity and reflect on experiences.

Moral: The opportunity to learn what is right and wrong and respect the law; understand consequences; investigate moral and ethical issues and offer reasoned views.

Social: The opportunity to use a range of social skills to participate in the local community and beyond; appreciate diverse viewpoints; participate, volunteer and cooperate; resolve conflict.

Cultural: The opportunity to explore and appreciate cultural influences; appreciate the role of Britain's parliamentary system; participate in cultural opportunities; understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity.

What are fundamental British values?

In 2014, the Department for Education told all schools to promote 'British values' and advised that this is done through SMSC.

Ofsted also require schools to promote 'British values' at every level including through their SMSC development, the curriculum and school leadership.

The fundamental British values are:

democracy

the rule of law

individual liberty

tolerance and respect

Read the DfE document Promoting fundamental British values through SMSC to find out more about how FBV should be promoted in school.

How does SMSC promote fundamental British values (FBV)?

Schools should aim to embed SMSC in all aspects of school life, from individual lessons to extra-curricular activities and assemblies. At Cornerstones, we put SMSC at the heart of our curriculum by basing our pedagogy, The Four Cornerstones, on the aspects of SMSC. This ensures that schools using the Cornerstones Curriculum can evidence SMSC in all their teaching and learning.

Watch our SMSC video here to learn more.

What do Ofsted say?

The importance of SMSC is outlined in Ofsted's School Inspection Handbook. The degree to which schools promote SMSC directly affects how Ofsted judge its overall effectiveness, quality and standards.

You can read the criteria outlined in points 135-139 of Ofsted's School Inspection Handbook 2016.

An 'outstanding' school will have a 'thoughtful and wide-ranging promotion of pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development'.

An 'inadequate' school will have 'serious weaknesses in the overall promotion of pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development'.

To help schools incorporate SMSC objectives into their lessons, We've developed a set of skills that teachers can use in their individual lesson planning. These are available to Cornerstones schools on The Hub.

In addition, we've also developed subject-leader checklists that schools can use to evaluate the effectiveness of SMSC in all subjects across school. These provide excellent evidence for Ofsted and encourage a focus on SMSC throughout the curriculum.

How does SMSC link to FBV?

There is still some confusion about how SMSC promotes the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and tolerance and respect. To help, we have devised a table to show the links between our SMSC skills and FBV. You can download the table below.
Click here to download your free SMSC skills and FBV links table.
Find out more

If you want to learn more about what Cornerstones can do to help you promote SMSC and FBV in your school, visit our SMSC and fundamental British values page, email support@cornerstoneseducation.co.uk or call us on 03333 20 8000.

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What is SMSC? | spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

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SMSC stands for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. All schools in England must now show how well they support children's SMSC development. At Cornerstones we define the aspects of SMSC as follows: Spiritual: The opportunity to explore beliefs, experience and faiths, feelings and values; enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world; use imagination and creativity and reflect on experiences.