Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural Development (SMSC)

                                        

Here at Surrey Hills, in partnership with the community, we work to provide an inclusive and nurturing learning environment with a Christian ethos. We create innovative, dynamic and motivated learners through our high expectations for success. We challenge our children to achieve their full potential and equip them to be life long learners and citizens of the future.

SMSC is about everything we do at Surrey Hills, underpinned by our values, to help our children to have the ability to be reflective about their own beliefs, religious or otherwise, that inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s faiths, feelings and values. Through a planned curriculum, staff encourage children to become responsible young citizens in society, enabling them to be kind, thoughtful and caring as they live and learn alongside many different beliefs, cultures and lifestyles.

Spiritual Development

Nurturing and growing children’s personal spirituality is of huge importance to our school community because, by doing this, we enable our children to find meaning in their lives and help them connect to others and the wider world. We believe that, by providing children with opportunities every day to feel loved, safe, secure and happy in our daily lives together, they develop the trust and confidence to open their minds and imaginations to explore their spiritual selves. Each unique child develops in their own time and we recognise that our pupils will flourish in different ways as they are given opportunities to explore the awe and wonder of the world.​

Moral and Social Development

Moral and Social development encourages a growing awareness that one is part of a wider society in which an individual has responsibilities towards others and may assume certain rights. It involves an understanding that obedience to laws and rules plays an important part in enabling society to function effectively for all. It encourages the acquisition of positive values and beliefs as a foundation for living and the basis for good decision making. We follow a democracy in voting for our School Council. The children are involved in planning their class rules, Surrey Hills Expectations and encouraging others to follow them. Playground buddies are responsible for caring for the younger children.

​Cultural development 

Cultural development enhances understanding of the role of traditions, customs, religious practice and artistic expression in giving identity to groups of people. It involves exploring how these combine to create a rich diversity of experience in our community and builds increasingly harmonious relationships with others in the wider world.