SMSC stands for Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development and can be summarised as follows:

Spiritual Development

• Explore beliefs and experiences
• Respect faiths, feelings and values
• Enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world
• Use imagination and creativity
• Reflect

Moral Development

• Recognise right and wrong
• Respect the law
• Understand consequences
• Investigate moral and ethical issues
• Offer reasoned views

Social Development

• 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 Development

• Appreciate cultural influences
• Appreciate the role of Britain’s parliamentary system
• Participate in culture opportunities
• Understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity

SMSC is promoted through so much of our daily school life that it becomes second nature to us.

Essentially, the school really is at the heart of the village of Kilmington - we visit the two local churches for our assemblies where we consider a wide range of moral issues but also celebrate our learning on a weekly basis. We are also lucky enough to have excellent community facilities such as a village hall and local cricket field to use for our PE. Our local residents love to see us out and about in the village and always say, “Hello”, and the ladies and gents at Koppers Residential Home are delighted when our Nursery children visit to do crafts with them.

Our school prides itself on its teamwork. Our children vote in their choices for school council representatives who work on potential improvements for the school. They also vote for their Eco-school representatives who specifically target actions for environmental impact alongside the gardening club who are continually improving our grounds both environmentally and aesthetically. We also have a team of playtime monitors from Year 5 and 6 who are available every playtime for children to get advice on issues that arise. The role of playtime monitor is taken very seriously and candidates are interviewed before they take up the post, there are regular meetings between the monitors and the Head of School where they discuss and solve any issues that have arisen.

Our small school status means that we are a perfect size to promote cooperation and responsibilities between our year groups. We have mixed age classes, so our children are privileged enough to work alongside many different children - not only those of their own age. We also dedicate many occasions for children to visit other classes - whole school art or science weeks are often grouped vertically across the year groups and this is especially apparent at sports day when the older children in the sports teams actively help out their younger teammates. We regularly have paired reading which the Foundation class absolutely love: “When are the big children coming to read to us?” is a popular question.

We support many of the national charity appeals such as Comic Relief, Children in Need, Sport Relief and Save the children’s ‘Christmas Jumper Day’. We have participated in several music ensembles both in our own school and learning community and on a wider scale, for example at the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra children’s participative concert. Our PTFA do a fantastic job raising money for the school and putting on fun events for children and adults; but they are also proactive in promoting the community spirit by offering litter picks and cake sales.

We offer two residential trips while children are in Key Stage Two. The first for Year 3 & Year 4 pupils is a trip to a residential study centre not too far from home - a chance for many children to experience their first overnight stays away from home. The children learn so much about themselves during this trip and take part in a range of mainly outdoor educational activities which would be difficult to offer in school or on a day trip.  This year the highlights were the bush craft cooking and low-ropes team building course! The second trip for Year 5 and Year 6 pupils is a full-on, action-packed residential bursting with adrenalin inducing activities from high-wires and abseiling to mountain biking at a centre further away from home. The children absolutely love it - suddenly being responsible for themselves and all their paraphernalia certainly takes some doing, but they get there in the end!