SMSC and Cultural Capital

SMSC is a broad concept, representing the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural education of pupils across all aspects of school life.  It is the over-arching umbrella that encompasses personal development across the whole curriculum.

OFSTED states that SMSC ‘requires schools to think about the kind of people we aspire to be, the kind of world we aspire to create, and the kind of education we aspire to provide’.  

At Thurston CE Primary Academy, SMSC is at the heart of school life, embedded through our Christian Ethos, our diverse curriculum, Collective Worship and our interactions with each other during the school day.  SMSC plays a significant part in pupils’ happiness, learning and achievement.  At Thurston CE Primary Academy, we pride ourselves in providing a school environment that celebrates our entire community and recognises our differences in a positive way.

SMSC in our Curriculum

We are dedicated to ensuring our pupils SMSC development is enhanced throughout the curriculum. Subject leaders have identified where there are SMSC opportunities with their subject and improved these where necessary. Each subject leader has developed these statement for SMSC in their subject:

Cultural Capital

Cultural Capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours and skills that a child gains over time through different experiences and opportunities. We believe our curriculum, alongside our SMSC opportunities help our pupils to build upon their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence and that this is key to ensure our pupils go on to be successful in society, their future careers and the world of work.

Cultural Capital gives a child power and helps them to achieve goals and success. At Thurston CE Primary Academy, we recognise that for a child to aspire and be successful academically and in the wider areas of their lives, they need to be given rich and sustained opportunities to develop. Alongside the SMSC areas of Social Development, Moral Development, Spiritual Development and Cultural Development, we ensure we also empower a child’s Cultural Capital through a wealth of opportunities to build their Personal Development and Physical Development.

Personal Development:

We support our pupils personal development through:

• Personal Finance Education;
• Personal, Social and Health Education provision;
• The school’s wider pastoral framework;
• ELSA support;
• Growth mindset and metacognition – Resilience development strategies;
• Transition support;
• Work to develop confidence e.g. oracy skills and public speaking;
• Focusing building self-esteem;
• Mental Health & well-being provision.

Physical Development:

We support our pupils physical development through:

• The Physical Education curriculum;
• Healthy Eating policies and catering provision;
• Anti-bullying and safeguarding policies and strategies;
• The Health Education dimension of the PSHE programme, including strands on drugs, smoking and alcohol;
• The extra-curricular programme related to sports and well-being;
• The celebration of sporting achievement including personal fitness and competitive sport;
• Bikeabilty opportunities;
• Activities available during lunch and break times;
• Activity-based trips, such as PGL and Go Ape;
• Curriculum units related to food preparation and nutrition;
• The promotion of walking or cycling to school.