Schools with an ethically based school
climate have the potential to nurture and
convert what appears to be innate empathy
in young children into caring, compassionate
and generous behaviours that will last a life
time. It is a valuable starting point for those
starting out on the SMSC trajectory.
Placing SMSC at the Heart of the
Curriculum
A good primary education has its basis in a
philosophy of personal responsibility, mutual
respect and concern for the world we live in.
Putting Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural
development at the heart of all learning can
help schools maintain their resolve within
a crowded curriculum, where the emphasis
upon meeting standards has the potential to
result in a shift away from this commitment.
It is the role of the education system to
prepare our young people for the demands
and opportunities of an increasingly
challenging world. If SMSC education is
treated with the importance it deserves, we
can dare to imagine a future in which our
national game is free from racism, where ‘care
homes’ really are places where people are
cared for, where the low paid no longer have
to fight for a living wage, and where
government ministers hold our police force
in proper regard. If children are equipped
with a strong sense of their rights and
responsibilities, and the skills to make a
positive difference from an early age, we can
envisage a society in which everyone is
treated fairly and everyone pays their dues.
Educating Young Citizens
Now we have an opportunity to show
children what human beings have done to
try and make the world a better place, and
to talk about some of the mistakes that have
been made along the way. Let’s give them
the space to address the big questions about
what it means to live together respectfully
and with integrity, and grow more effective
ideas, opinions and solutions than we have
so far managed to do.
Consider this comment from a Year 6 pupil
of Newton Farm Nursery, Infant and Junior
School after participating in the Go-Givers
‘Make a Difference Challenge’:
‘I feel we play an important part in creating
a fair, morally correct society. As we are part
of a new generation we have a responsibility.
That responsibility is to clean up the mistakes
from before, start anew and improve society.’
In our quest to give children an opportunity
to get involved, I have trust in our teachers,
and faith in the aspiration and spirit of our
young people, that we can make a success of
this. I hope, for the sake of all of us in society,
that I am not mistaken.
Marguerite Heath
ethos
positive education for the future
“I’ll Do My Duty …
If I Can”
Andrew Morris of Liverpool Hope University on
developing and inspecting pupils’ spirituality in schools
Historical Background
In England in the 1940s many regarded the
struggles of the Second World War as a
conflict between Christian and neo-pagan
Nazi values, and saw the proposals contained
in the Education Bill, enacted on 4th August
1944, as the means, among other things,
for reviving spiritual and personal values in
society.
All the main principles of the Bill received
general support, including a statutory duty
laid upon local education authorities to
contribute towards
“… the spiritual, moral, mental and physical
development of the community by ensuring
that efficient education throughout those
stages [of primary, secondary and further
education] shall be available to meet the needs
of the population in their area.”
(Education Act 1944, s. 7)
This paper considers how fulfilling the
spiritual element of that statutory duty –
seen at the time as clear, obvious and straight
12
ethos magazine
positive education for the future
forward - has become more complex and
difficult in today’s pluralistic, multi-cultural
and secular society. We are now in a
post-Christian age.
Spiritual Development Changing Perspectives
In 1944 it was assumed that effective
(Christian) Religious Education was the most
appropriate vehicle for developing children’s
spiritual, moral and social faculties. At the
time the notion was not contentious.
However, that state of affairs did not last.
The Newsom Report (1963) recognised that
“… Parliament gave schools a difficult but not
impossible task when it told them to foster their
spiritual and moral development” (§157).
Nevertheless, the authors remained
convinced that the compulsory act of
corporate worship was an effective way of
promoting spiritual development (§174).
While Newsom assumed the centrality of
(Christian) Religious Education within the
curriculum, four years later, the Plowden
Report (1967) recorded a number of
13