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Citizenship

The pupil’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) education is at the heart of our school life, embedded through the curriculum, extra-curricular learning, assemblies and our interactions with each other during the school day.  SMSC, and within that, Citizenship, plays a significant part in pupils’ happiness, learning and achievement.  At Holte, we provide a school environment that celebrates our diverse community and recognises our differences in a positive way. We strive to create a peaceful environment in which our pupils can thrive.

Citizenship education is crucial to their development as individuals, allowing them to take their rightful place in their community as local, national and global citizens. Citizenship is about the values students are encouraged to hold and their attitude towards learning, knowledge and society. Through Citizenship lessons we seek to develop attitudes and values that will enable students to become responsible and active members of society.

Staffing

All teaching staff teach Citizenship through their year teams on days called ‘SMSC Days’.

An Overview

All Holte School staff are involved in delivering Citizenship and PSHE education, we do this through a cross curricular approach, over seven discreet days a year and as part of a Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural programme of study delivered during form time.

Every pupil at Holte takes part in SMSC Days and they are often filled with subject specialists from the working world, government organisations such as the NHS or the police and voluntary organisations as well as visits to various places in and around Birmingham.

Our Citizenship and PSHE curriculum provides an invaluable opportunity to support students’ social, moral, spiritual and cultural (SMSC) development and to promote fundamental British values and our core school values amongst students.

Our Positive Peace initiative sits at the heart of our programme of study, with pupils learning how to achieve inner, outer, global and ecological peace for themselves and society.

The Citizenship Curriculum

The core Citizenship curriculum is delivered by all staff during three SMSC Citizenship Days held once a term and through an SMSC programme of study delivered by form tutors twice a week. The curriculum has been developed around three core themes at Key Stage 3, 4 and 5.

1. democracy and justice,
2. rights and responsibilities
3. identities and diversity.

Citizenship is also taught as part of the school’s SMSC programme of study delivered during form time twice a week. In addition Year Managers deliver a series of assemblies on the core themes of Citizenship to complement the work undertaken during SMSC Citizenship Days and form time. All students undertake an annual Citizenship examination.

Religious Curriculum

As part of our SMSC Days we also cover parts of the RE curriculum.  The national curriculum states the legal requirement that:

‘Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based, and which:

– Promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils; and

– Prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.’

This is why we believe that RE topics fit very well into our SMSC Days. The table below outlines what each year covers from the RE curriculum (KS3 also have RE lessons as part of their normal teaching timetable):

Commonly used websites:

These websites are often referenced during teaching and pupils can use them to further their knowledge around Citizenship issues:

For further information regarding the school’s SMSC programme of study please refer to the SMSC section of the school website.​​​​​​​