Dream
All schools in England are required by OFSTED to show how their pupils are developing in SMSC (Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural) areas. Each of these four categories has significance for the education of the whole child or young person, although in the average life of a school they are not all given equal weight or even wholly understood by many staff.
As Christian visitors to schools, we not only have a responsibility to know about these requirements, but are also able to contribute to the school’s provision for these areas. The area of particular interest to us as faith visitors is how schools define spiritual development and how that need is currently being met. It is worth taking a look at the OFSTED definition, as we may assume that spiritual development should all be about religious exploration or faith. However, it is much broader than that. The spiritual part of SMSC is concerned with personal insight, values, meaning and purpose and is about developing the non-material aspects of life. For some pupils, beliefs and values may be rooted in a religion, but equally they may not. OFSTED place importance on creativity, imagination and a fascination in pupil’s learning about themselves, others and the world around them.
With that in mind, what if our work in schools could be based on the language that schools are speaking and the requirements that they are being inspected to provide? What if we could offer a depth and insight of learning for students that enhances their engagement with SMSC in our local schools? What if spiritual development could include us helping to give children and young people space to explore moments of awe and wonder and to develop a vocabulary to articulate their big questions? We could and should be doing more in this area.
Develop
We should all be familiar with the OFSTED definitions of social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. You can find these at doingsmsc.org.uk. Beyond doing some research about what is meant by SMSC, there are a few more steps it might help to take to develop you and your schools’ work in this area:
- Do some reading around spiritual development and education. Here’s some things we suggest (you can find links for these at schoolswork.co.uk as well as further reading around the subject):
- Schools Linking guidance and definitions: schoolslinking.org.uk/guidance-publications
- Fruits of the Spirit (a Church of England paper on character education). Here’s a quote included in the report from the National Society (Consultation Submission on Proposed Independent School Standards, July 2014): “Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development currently focuses more on the moral, social and cultural than on spiritual development. Spiritual development should not solely be about building self-esteem and self-confidence but greater emphasis should be given to actively encouraging people to grapple with the big ethical issues of life in the light of insights from the major faith traditions and belief systems.”
- James Fowler’s stages of faith development. You can download a copy of this on the SchoolsworkUK website.
- Talk to the person responsible for SMSC throughout the life of the school and listen to any needs they have or challenges they are experiencing.
- Meet with others (either who you work with, or from your church) to pray about how God might be calling you to get involved in this area and talk about what is already going on, and how this could affect or influence any future work you do.
- Look for resources, programmes or people who could help meet that need. You may find the following websites helpful: schoolslinking.org.uk, smsc.org.uk and schoolswork.co.uk
Do
To help get children and young people exploring their spiritual selves, first we find that helping provide a way of understanding spirituality is essential. If you ask a child or young person who has no faith background (or even one who does) what they think the word spiritual means, you will often get responses involving ghosts, death or the afterlife. We would love to help you communicate the idea of spirituality as something which helps individuals live at peace with themselves, to embrace the idea of meaning and purpose, to be open to experiences of awe, wonder, joy and sorrow and to develop a deeper understanding of different ideas about the transcendent, or God. That doesn’t all happen in one session, and is more often about accompanying children and young people on a journey of spiritual exploration…
Primary school ideas
Stories are an ideal way for children to explore different life situations and assess the choices made by characters, reflect on their own approach to successes or disasters and be awed by the narrative. Depending on context, you can naturally draw faith (and your own faith) into this, but remember that context is important! Here are a few suggestions on using stories to open up spiritual development:
Use films or TV programmes. Choosing extracts from films (such as those made by Disney Pixar) or TV programmes (such as Doctor Who) can help make the connection between spirituality and how that works out in our own lives. What guides our decision-making? What fills us with wonder? What makes us anxious and nervous?
- An obvious choice is Inside Out. Watch a clip where Sadness touches memories and turns them blue. Explore why Joy might try to stop her. Reflect on whether you can have joy without sadness.
- In Toy Story 3, you could watch the clip where Andy is getting rid of most of his toys as he has grown out of them. Talk about where else we might have those feelings - when friendships end? When people die? When we move house?
The parables of Jesus are multi-layered and demand the kind of self-reflection and ‘theologising’ encouraged in the guidelines for spiritual development. (To experience that for yourself, spend some time working through this month’s Recharge article on page 72.)
- Tell a parable, such as the good Samaritan, and ask the children questions that invite their opinion. These are questions around concepts such as thought (what do you think was going through the priest’s head when he came across the injured man?), motivation (why do you think the Levite walked past the injured man?) or conversation (what do you think the Samaritan said to the injured man as he helped him?). These will help children get under the skin of the story and access some of the deeper meaning, and in the process challenge themselves about their own response.
- Use Godly Play as a way to develop awe and wonder in children, as well as introduce the idea of interacting with sacred stories. Many parables can be retold using the Godly Play method of stillness and action, conversation and reflection, engagement and response. The ‘wondering’ time involved in Godly Play is a useful tool to help children interrogate the story, probe their own responses and grow spiritually. Of course, the Christian element is central to Godly Play, but the technique will spark conversations whatever the faith background of the children. The pearl of great price might lead to thought about what is important to us and others; the story of the mustard seed might aid reflection on faith or the power of our actions; the parable of the sower might open up questions about what distracts us from our path. To learn more, go to godlyplay.uk
Secondary school ideas
One activity we’ve found helpful with students of all faiths and none is the spiritual qualities ladder, to help them think about what qualities they consider spiritual and which ones are important to them. The activity is described briefly for you below.
Spiritual qualities ladder
First, we help them define what the following words mean in this context. This is not a comprehensive list - you may want to edit or add some of your own:
Acceptance: attitude of accepting often negative situations, without protest or trying to change them.
Vision: ability to see what is good and pursue it.
Alert to mystery or the big beyond: awareness that there is more, a keenness to pursue what we cannot explain.
Appreciation: not taking things for granted but offering thankfulness to others, this might include God.
Courage: boldness to do something good, even when it is hard or scares you.
Detachment: ability to stand back from a situation and see the whole picture.
Energy: ability to carry through tasks and approach life with enthusiasm.
Hope: looking for more than meets the eye in their experiences.
Integrated: being the same person in every setting.
Love: developing true concern for others in relationships.
After talking through the list with the students (find a way of displaying these), ask them to start thinking about which qualities they most relate to and which are important to them in their lives. This activity works best with year 9 (13 and 14-year-olds) and above, but you could adapt it and use simpler terms for younger years. The next bit is where the ladder comes in. You can draw a simple ladder outline and photocopy it, or download an image from the internet (a quick search for cartoon ladder outline should generate what you need). This helps give students a visual base to then add the qualities in order from ones that are most important to them at the top to ones that are least important at the bottom of the ladder.
This activity helps lead to conversations around what makes something spiritual, and what type of person they want to be. If they have trouble thinking about a quality or characteristic, ask them to think about someone who they think embodies any of these qualities and ask them to describe what that looks like for them.
Ask the students what qualities they would add to the list and explore those with them. This activity works best as part of a longer conversation you are having with a group of students about how they define spirituality and how they understand themselves as spiritual people. It does not necessarily rely on a set of beliefs or principles, but talking about qualities of people with a Christian faith as well as other faiths may have, fits very well into this activity.
Amy Tolmie is a schools’ worker based in Luton and director of SchoolsworkUK.
Alex Taylor is resources editor for Premier Youth and Children’s Work.
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