SOCIAL, MORAL, SPIRITUAL & CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
At North London Grammar School we focus strongly on students’ social, moral, spiritual & cultural development of a sense of identity, self-worth, personal insight, meaning, and purpose. We also focus on the development of a student’s ‘spirit’, ‘personality’ or ‘character’ through a variety of means.
By enabling students to build a framework of moral values aligned with law, which regulates their personal behavior, we aim to develop students’ understanding of society’s shared and agreed values. We encourage them to understand that there are issues where there is disagreement but that also there needs to be understanding that society’s values change. Students are outstanding in developing and sharing an opinion about their different views.
Our young people work effectively with each other and participate successfully in the community as a whole. We encourage them in their development of the skills and personal qualities necessary for living and working together in harmony and making a positive contribution to the school community and wider society. Students at North London Grammar School know this is about functioning effectively in a multi-racial, multi-cultural society and developing into a tolerant and helpful human beings. We encourage the understanding that this involves growth in knowledge and understanding of the society in all its aspects. This includes our student’s needs to understand people as well as understanding society’s institutions, structures and characteristics, economic and political principles and organisations, roles and responsibilities, and life as a citizen, parent or worker in a community. We actively encourage the development of the interpersonal skills necessary for successful relationships.
What do we do?
First of all, we help pupils to develop an understanding of their own culture and other cultures in their town, region, and in the country as a whole. Secondly, students have an understanding of cultures represented in Europe and elsewhere in the world. Moreover, they know that this is about understanding and feeling comfortable in a variety of cultures. It is also about being able to operate in the emerging world culture of shared experiences provided by television, art, theatre, travel, and the internet. Students realise that this is about understanding that cultures are always changing. They also realize that they need to cope with any change. Promoting pupils’ cultural development is intimately linking with schools’ attempts to value cultural diversity and prevent racism.
Finally, we actively encourage and have created a bespoke programme within our daily form time and assemblies to address Social Moral Spiritual Cultural (SMSC) development. Assembly themes include the community, culture, personal qualities and skills, values, beliefs, and appreciation. We have developed themes and an assembly thematic cycle to support this.