Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Education (SMSC)

At Buxton Junior School, we believe that pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development equips them to be thoughtful, caring and active citizens in school and in wider society. We promote equal opportunities, an inclusive environment and the Modern British Values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance. 

Throughout the school year, we make sure that every child gets to experience a diverse range of activities not only through the National Curriculum, but also through the SMSC calendar of events and activities. One example, is the exciting visit in Year 4 to the Open Centre in Derby; this gives the children the opportunity to visit a mosque, Hindu temple and a gurdwara. Staff from the Open Centre have visited school to run Asian cookery workshops and Passover workshops as well as whole school assemblies.

Our desire is to make inspiring cross-curricular links to extend pupils’ SMSC development. Helping children to understand the wider world and their part in it through a range of subjects, including literature, humanities and art. At Buxton Junior School, there are many opportunities for the children to take part in making decisions and ‘shaping’ their school community. 

Character Education

Pupil Voice at Buxton Junior School

We gather the views and opinions of our children with termly happiness surveys and annual hot-spot questionnaires. These are analysed and followed up on. We also hold termly circle-time meetings where the children gather in vertical groups (i.e. some children from each year group) to discuss an issue, question or problem that we would like to solve together. The Year 6 children then feed this back and we as a staff act upon it. We chose our school charity by using circle-time to create a list of options and then each child had a vote for our final choice. 

Our children feel confident that all the adults in school are approachable and will take their views seriously. We also have a worry box for children to place messages in if they need support.  

Weekly pupil voice assemblies give our children the opportunity to share what they feel is important to them. We have a school council and an eco-council in our bid to become 'the greenest school in Buxton'!