Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) Development including British Values
At Cullingworth Village Primary School, the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development of our children also includes the development and understanding of modern British Values. This is developed through the whole curriculum or in discrete PSHCE lessons or assemblies.
Spiritual Development
The curriculum at Cullingworth allows the children to imagine, reflect, create and enjoy learning about themselves, others and the world around them.
Moral Development
As a school we are committed to ensuring that our children are thoughtful, active and caring citizens at school and in the wider world. The children are taught to be able to recognise right from wrong. They are supported in understanding the consequences of their behaviour and actions.
Social Development
Our pupils are taught to use of a range of social skills in different contexts, for example working and socialising with other pupils, including those from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. They are given the opportunity to be involved in community events and competitions. They are taught to resolve their own conflicts effectively. They are taught the 'British values' of democracy, the rule of law, liberty, respect and tolerance.
Cultural Development
We develop the children’s understanding and appreciation of the range of different cultures within school and the city in which we live. This is an essential element of their preparation for life in modern Britain. We help the children to understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity through a range of opportunities e.g. visits, visitors, stories and musical opportunities.
Assembly time in September
Our assembly times with Mrs Isaac have concentrated on coming back together as a school community.
We have taken part in a hoop team work challenge. This required us to think carefully to problem solve as a team and communicate effectively with each other.
We celebrated the success of team GB at the Tokyo Olympics and thought about the values and attributes demonstrated by the athletes and how we can relate this to Team Cullingworth and our school community. Determination, Patience, Courage, Kindness, Positivity, Perseverance, Self-belief, and Hard work were all key learning behaviours we expect to see in the classroom as part of our learning.
We have re-launched our school houses linked to inspirational sports people and thought carefully about why we have chosen these to be our ‘special and significant’ people. We have Team Rashford (red) Team Daley (blue) Team Brown (yellow) and Team Storey (green). Over the year we will be holding house competitions and collecting points for our house teams. Please talk to your child about the house team they belong to, and about the achievements and success Rashford, Daley, Brown and Storey have had.
Assembly time October
This month in assembly we have looked at the values kindness and helpfulness. We also read the book You be you. This inspired us to think about our own school community. We discussed that we are all individual and unique, with different strengths and talents but we all swim together at CVPS as a team. Every child made a fish for our whole school display. We now have 318 fish all displayed together in our hall to celebrate our school team.
Assembly Time in November
We launched anti-bullying week with our 'Odd Sock Day'. All children attended a whole school assembly where we talked about positive relationships and the effects of bullying. We also watched the Anti-Bullying Alliance video and song which promotes the 2021 theme 'one kind word'. This month we have also had out NSPCC assembly 'Speak Out, Stay Safe'. This is an important part of our commitment to teaching children about safeguarding.
Assembly Time in December
Reverend Anna from St Johns came into school for the start of Advent and talked to children in assembly about what it means for Christians to prepare for Christmas. We are pleased to have strong links with the Parish Church! The children also enjoyed a Christingle assembly learning all about this Christmas tradition and the meaning behind it. Pupils from Year 5/6 led the assembly sharing the information with the rest of the school and displaying the Christingles they made.
Assembly Time in January
In assembly we have encouraged children to take part in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch which takes place 28th-30th January. We also learned about the Chinese New Year, its origin and how people celebrate today. As part of our work in promoting and understanding British Values we have started a sequence of sessions on Individual Liberty. We are learning about the lives of significant inspirational people (Harriet Tubman, Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai and Rosa Parks). During our reflection time we are thinking about how this relates to Britain today and the values we hold as a school and country.
Assembly Time in February
In assembly we talked about the STAR strategy (stop, take a breath and relax.). This helps us to recognise and understand our feelings. We have also launched our new worry boxes. The children's Wellbeing Warrior group have set this important initiative up. This linked to our work as part of Children's Mental Health Week.
We also welcomed Simone from Community Champions to talk about the importance of Education. She talked to the children about her journey to becoming a successful business owner and managing director. Simone grew up in poverty and suffered harm from her mum. She explained that despite having a difficult start to life she overcame this and used her education to improve her life. She was very inspiring! As part of our work on keeping safe online we had a special assembly on Internet Safety Day with the launch of a competition.
Assembly Time in March
In assembly we had a special visitor, Bart Gee, from Breaking Limits to talk to us about his inspirational life and achievements. Bart was born with a physical disability called Arthrogryposis. Doctors said that he would never walk and many not have the strength to sit up. Despite this prognosis he had a great self-belief and determination. The children heard about how he learned to walk, write and drive a car. He plays the drums and piano to a high standard and we enjoyed listening to him play. He has also completed in triathlons learning to swim and ride a bike. His message was that to him difficult still means it is possible. In a follow up assembly we learned about other inspirational people with a disability including Paralympic athletes Ellie Simmonds and Same Sarah Storey. We looked at Greta Thunberg's success in campaigning for climate change and discussed how she has an Autism diagnosis. We looked at the achievements of David Blunkett as the first visually impaired cabinet minister. We watched a video of Rose Ayling-Ellis who completed and won as the first hearing impaired contestant on Strictly Come Dancing. The children have been captivated by this unit of learning and responded sensitively showing great maturity in their understanding.
