Marilyn Cowling
Independent Consultant
(RE/RS, SMSC, pedagogy, AfL)
Email: mossmother@hotmail.co.uk
Tel: 07764577064
Within the Ofsted 2012 Inspection Framework SMSC is judged
under attainment, the quality of teaching, behaviour and
safety, leadership and management of the school and overall
effectiveness.
When Ofsted teams gather evidence there is a separate
heading to capture SMSC – in other words, the expectation is
that SMSC will be threaded through the whole school
community and curriculum. Ofsted will be asking pupils
about their experiences in school. This is not as daunting as
it sounds – your school is probably giving plenty of
opportunities to develop SMSC. The purpose of this workshop
is to help you identify and make the most of the
opportunities to develop the spiritual.
What do we mean by spiritual development?
Pupils’ spiritual development is shown by their:
Beliefs, religious or otherwise, which inform their
perspective on life and their interest in and
respect for different people’s feelings and values
 Sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning
about themselves, others and the world around
them, including the intangible
 Use of imagination and creativity in their learning
 Willingness to reflect on their experiences

Ofsted is not looking to catch schools out,
rather it will welcome those schools that are
able to say, with confidence, that they are
making a contribution to SMSC through
collective worship, the curriculum and wider
opportunities.
See good practice exemplification on Ofsted
website:
Middleton Moor Primary
Lipsom Community College
“…the many religions of Homo sapiens are the
richly varied cultural responses of human
beings to their natural spiritual awareness”
“each person has their own spiritual signature,
a way of looking at human identity that is as
individual as a finger print”
(Rebecca Nye, Spirit of the Child)
Visualisation:
Take a learning walk around your school.
Walk into the entrance/reception area, look around what do you see,
what do you hear. What ethos does this convey?
As you walk into the main part of school, perhaps going to your
classroom or to the staff room or some other place you regularly visit,
what do you observe on the walls, the state of the displays, what is
happening in classes as you pass…
How do staff and pupils greet each other …
Take a look round the room in which you spend most time, can you see
any questions displayed to prompt reflection, any motivating quotes
(for adults and pupils), photographs of pupils engaged in learning…
How are the chairs and tables organised, does this plan foster dialogue…
Pick up a lesson plan and look for any aspect that will prompt
reflection, wondering, questions about meaning and purpose…
Share what we saw and thought about…
All subjects can make a contribution to the spiritual
development of children and young people through the
content (i.e. what is taught – the subject matter) and the
processes (i.e. the skills/attributes and the
teaching/learning strategies) used.
 Would a greater emphasis on spiritual development change
what and how we teach?
 Can we identify opportunities for spiritual development in
our planning
 How do we know that our pupils are responding to the
opportunities for spiritual development that we provide for
them? (The ‘so what?’)
 How does the way our curriculum is organised support
and/or hinder spiritual development?
Some possible approaches to support
spiritual development
 Silence
to promote deep thinking/reflection,
visualisation, stilling
 Listening to music to aid thinking/reflection
 Creating music in response to thinking/reflection
 Prayer
 Reflecting on works of art – their meaning and
symbolism
 Creating art in response to thinking/reflection
 Exploring the meaning of story (especially religious and
spiritual)
 Writing stories/poetry to express meaning and emotions
 Discussion
about feelings and responses
(P4C, community of enquiry)
 Circle time
 Reflection diaries
 Responding to big questions - asking big/rich
questions
 Questions -’I wonder…’ at least once a day
 Big question walls; ‘www’ wall (we were
wondering) Can of worms tin (any ? Any time)
 Activities to stimulate the imagination and
creativity e.g. play
 Think pair share, thinking hats, group work
 Self and peer assessment
Imaginative teaching strategies – use of Godly Play; role
play; freeze frames, hot seating
 Plan learning from pupils own experiences
 Use of the senses and alternative forms of expression
 Higher order questions/thinking HOTS – Blooms
taxonomy
 Spirited Arts competition www.natre.org.uk
 Outcomes worthwhile and authentic (of use to the
community) displayed
 Meaningful homework such as learning logs see
www.learninglogs.co.uk
 Make notes without words while a story is read to them,
create a shape with clay or play dough about a part of
the story which they find interesting or makes them
think

 Thought/word
for the week is articulated
throughout the school community in all
communications
 Displays in prominent places reflecting the
values of the school
SMSC:a Christian Perspective Diocese of Norwich
1. As a school/subject leader/key stage/department/faculty
what contribution do, can, or should
the different curriculum areas make to the spiritual
development of our pupils/students
– both in terms of the content we cover and the processes we
adopt (e.g teaching and learning
strategies engaged with)?
2. Think of how you currently organise your school’s
curriculum or subject area’s scheme of
work. What are its current strengths in terms of helping
children/young people develop
spiritually (morally, social and culturally)? How do you know?
What might/do you need to
change to make further improvements?
3. How might approaches to curriculum design and
delivery such as themed or topic based
learning or the creative learning journey in the
primary school and project or problem based
learning in the secondary school support spiritual
development opportunities through the skills
and processes such approaches might encourage?
What opportunities do exam subjects provide and
how do you build on them?
4. How might learning outside the classroom
opportunities promote the development of
spiritual
capacities?
http://www.lotc.org.uk/
Four questions to think about and focus on:
How does MY CURRICULUM AREA in MY SCHOOL:
 provide pupils/students with knowledge and insight into values
and religious beliefs and enable them to reflect on their
experiences in a way which develops their self-knowledge, selfesteem and spiritual awareness?
 contribute to teaching the principles which separate right from
wrong and help pupils/students to act on these principles
appropriately?
 encourage pupils/students to relate efficiently to others, take
responsibility, participate fully in the community and develop an
understanding of citizenship?
 teach pupils/students to appreciate and develop their own
cultural traditions and appreciate the diversity and richness of
other cultures?
1.
As a school/subject leader/key stage/department/faculty what
contribution do, can, or should we make to provision of opportunities
for the spiritual development of the pupils/students we teach?
How can we identify such opportunities within our planning? How
would a greater emphasis on this dimension of human experience
change what we teach and the ways in which we teach it? How do we
know how our pupils/students respond to the opportunities we provide
for/with them?
2. Think of a lesson or group of lessons taught recently - if you had been
focusing on its contribution to the provision of opportunities for
spiritual development and how your pupils/students respond to this,
how might you have changed:
• your planning?
• your delivery?
• the activities you expected from the pupils/students?
• your assessment activities and approaches?