Falling for SMSC

One of our whole school targets this year is SMSC - Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural education. Big in the new OFSTED framework, some might say its another set of letters which will be dropped alongside the pile of letters that include E, C and M. Letters it may be, but having this high on our agenda isn't proving a chore in the slightest - infact its great!
What I like most about it is the way it prompts you to add a new dimension (or recognise an existing one) to your lesson ideas and materials. For new and trainee teachers in particular this focus encourages important elements if a childs development. We evidence this through the use of our daily diaries, which are colour coded with colours which have universal meaning to all staff in school. Blue = SMSC links.

Recording in this way allows work in books or on displays to be linked back to by date and add further context.
(The red shows APP links, orange ICT and pink is extension tasks.)

Evidencing is one crucial element as with any OFSTED focus, but what's trickier initially, is pinning down what constitutes what in those four letters. Social, ok. Cultural, yeah not too bad. But Spiritual...hmm. And Moral, fine but how do you 'see' it? Certain lessons lend themselves to these words whereas others, such as Maths and ICT don't. The words and links aren't as clear initially. Teaching a lot of ICT I've thought a bit about this and in a future post I intend to share my ideas. Tomorrow I'm teaching Maths with a cultural element through the use of art by Paul Klee. So I'll report on how the kids respond there!

I have recently read something on Twitter from @SMSConline which nicely gives some starting points on how to develop these areas in your lessons and across school.
This is the link http://www.smsc.org.uk/Index.asp?MainID=12026

Forgetting about OFSTED for a tic. I love it because of how it pushes me into adding genuinely interesting aspects and dimensions to my lessons and how we all should be focused on developing children beyond grades.

Source: globalfootpronts.org. (Probably created using Tagxedo which is a great little resource to check out! ;-) )

In the coming weeks, amongst other things, I'll pop on a few examples in practice and how my pupils responded. I'm also going to talk to new teachers and trainees about SMSC in school. Last time I asked, it was a resounding 'What's that?'

For more info see: http://www.doingsmsc.org.uk/