Alverstoke Church of England Junior School

Love

Courage

Respect

SMSC and British Values

SMSC at Alverstoke Junior School

SMSC 23-24

SMSC stands for social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. At Alverstoke Junior, we take great pride in our approach to SMSC across the school, feeling that our pupils have a social conscience, and are tolerant and caring individuals. SMSC feeds into many areas of life at Alverstoke Junior School including Collective Worships, charity and outreach projects, Young Governors and young enterprise.

A display in the school’s entrance shows just some aspects of SMSC which are part of our school life.

 

British Values

Our vision and values of love, respect and courage are at the core of everything we do. They underpin our teaching and learning, and provide an environment which prepares our pupils as confident, happy citizens.

Promoting Fundamental British Values

The Department for Education states that: “Schools should promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect, and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs.”

At Alverstoke Junior School we reinforce these values, through the education that we provide, in the following ways:

Democracy

Pupils are always listened to by adults, and their friends and peers. They are respectful to other’s views and opinions and they have a clear voice in ways in which they lead their learning and their school. We have a Young Governors group, members of which are elected by their class, which meet regularly to discuss issues raised by their peers. The Young Governors have their own budget and are able to genuinely effect change within the school.

Our SAPERE Gold Award for P4C (initial award in June 2016 and reassessed in July 2019) recognised the importance we place on listening to children and valuing the opinions of all

‘All sessions observed, saw pupils engaging in discussion around concepts (and some more challenging and controversial concepts), as starting points for enquiry or arising from their questions, for example, boy/girl stereotypes and LGBT issues in Year 5, Fairness in Year 4, Rules in Year 6. A group of children from Year 3 to 6 shared their thoughts on their P4C experiences, articulating how P4C helped them to listen to the views and opinions of others and recognise other perspectives.’ Sapere P4C Gold Award Renewal visit 2019

Children at Alverstoke are very astute with school systems and fully involved in self-assessing and peer assessing their learning, and defining their next steps. Children are aware that they have a voice and they know the leadership structure through the school. Children are taught about the British electoral system and about demonstrating democracy.

The Rule of Law

The importance of Laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout regular school days, as well as when dealing with behaviour. At Alverstoke Junior School we have the 5 Golden Rules which we expect all pupils to adhere to.

Golden Rules at Alverstoke Junior School

  • 1) We do as we are asked straight away
  • 2) We take care of our school
  • 3) We speak politely and never swear, tease or bully
  • 4) We do our best and work hard
  • 5) We keep our hands and feet to ourselves

We work with children through our curriculum teaching, class, and whole school Collective Worships to ensure that our values of love, courage and respect underpin everything we do. This includes stake holders, adults (as role models) in modelling and demonstrating and inspiring our children in understanding how to be the best possible contributing citizens to our society. Older children are taught about crime and punishment reflecting that we all have responsibilities and that with responsibilities can come consequences. As a school, we set the highest expectations for our children and they have full ownership over their behaviours for conduct and learning based on our school values which mirror those in society.

Individual liberty

Within school, children are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school we educate and provide boundaries for them to make choices safely, through provision of a safe environment and an empowering education. Pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and advised how to exercise these safely and appropriately, from example through E-Safety and P4C enquires. Whether it be through choice of a learning challenge, of how they record, of participation in our numerous extra-curricular clubs and opportunities, pupils are given the freedom to make choices.

Mutual respect

As a Church of England school, mutual respect is embedded within our core Christian values of love, respect and courage. Children learn that their behaviours have an effect on their own rights and those of others. All members of the school community treat each other with love and respect. Through P4C our children learn to express their views freely whilst respecting that the views of others may be different to their own.

Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

Alverstoke CE Junior School is situated in an area which is not greatly culturally diverse, therefore we place great emphasis on promoting diversity with the children. P4C enquiries, using stimuli related issues such as homelessness, refuges and child labour, are regularly planned to promote an understanding of people and communities beyond their immediate experience. This is reinforced through our RE and PDL curriculum through the inclusion of stimuli from a variety of faiths and cultures.

At Alverstoke CE Junior School we will actively challenge pupils, staff or parents expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British Values, including ‘extremist’ views.