Dickens Heath Community Primary School offers a broad, balanced and relevant curriculum which promotes the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) and personal development of students and helps to prepare them for the opportunities and responsibilities of life in modern Britain.

With our vision and mission being to ‘enable our children to be the best version of themselves,’ by this we mean their whole self – spiritually, morally, socially, culturally, emotionally, mentally, behaviourally as well as academically: we focus on educating the whole child. SMSC is an integral part of our Personal Development programme where our SMILE ethos and approach which promotes the NHS five ways to wellbeing is at its core and our comprehensive PSHE programme: Jigsaw explicitly teaches and promotes SMSC, character and personal development.

We aim to ensure that our children develop into self-assured, confident, happy, positive young people. We celebrate the achievements of our students and encourage students to have the resilience and confidence to undertake difficult tasks and have a wide range of experiences. We are committed to their character development in order to facilitate this and use emotion coaching and mindfulness alongside our emotion response and positive behaviour policy to support. Children are encouraged to take responsibility for their behaviour, to show initiative and understand how they can contribute positively to the lives of those living and working in the locality, and to society more widely.

What is SMSC? – Some definitions:

Spiritual – the development of a sense of identity, self-worth, personal insight, meaning and purpose. Explore beliefs and experience; respect faiths, feelings and values; enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world; use imagination and creativity; reflect.

Moral – the building of a framework of moral values; the development of students’ understanding of society’s shared and agreed values and the ability to distinguish between right and wrong; respect the law; understand consequences; investigate moral and ethical issues; offer reasoned views and have an appreciation of British Values.

Social – the development of skills and personal qualities necessary for living and working together; being able to function in a multi-racial, multi-cultural society and the development of the inter-personal skills necessary for successful relationships. Use a range of social skills; participate in the local community; appreciate diverse viewpoints; participate, volunteer and cooperate; resolve conflict; engage with the 'British values' of democracy, the rule of law, liberty, respect and tolerance.

Cultural – the understanding of a student’s own culture and other cultures in their town, region, their own country, Europe and the rest of the world. Appreciate cultural influences; appreciate the role of Britain's parliamentary system; participate in culture opportunities; understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity.

Please refer to our SMSC policy for further details:

Whole School Theme Days/Weeks

Throughout the year, themed days/weeks are woven into the curriculum to extend the breadth and balance of opportunities we offer our pupils for SMSC development. These include, Anti-bullying Week, S.M.I.L.E days to share and celebrate emotional health and wellbeing, European Day of Languages, RE and cultural days and other emersion days and charity days.