Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural

The well-being agenda is at the heart of the Castlefort curriculum and the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils is fundamental to this. The school has achieved the Families First National Quality Mark in recognition of its provision for pupils and their families.

Pupils will:

• explore beliefs and experience; respect faiths, feelings and values; enjoy learning about oneself, others and the surrounding world; use imagination and creativity; reflect;
• recognise right and wrong; respect the law; understand consequences; investigate moral and ethical issues; offer reasoned views;
• use a range of social skills; participate in the local community; appreciate diverse viewpoints; participate, volunteer and cooperate; resolve conflict; engage with the 'British values' of democracy, the rule of law, liberty, respect and tolerance;
• appreciate cultural influences; appreciate the role of Britain's parliamentary system; participate in culture opportunities; understand, accept, respect and celebrate diversity.

Spiritual

• Our school holds a daily act of worship; this may be a whole school assembly or a class assembly (once a week).
• On Mondays, our pupils take part in a ‘hymn practice’ in the school hall, led by the Headteacher and the school’s music specialist, Mrs Simcox. Our pupils sing beautifully together!
• Our school follows the Walsall Locally Agreed Syllabus for RE. From this, we have devised detailed medium term plans and resources to enable us to deliver a comprehensive programme which allows all pupils to develop a good understanding of the six major faiths. The scheme is further enhanced through educational visits to places of worship.
• We actively encourage pupils in our school to develop a ‘love of learning’ through our ‘Learning Ambassadors’ scheme. Children in Early Years are encouraged to develop good learning habits; they are rewarded as ‘Little Learners’ for this. As they move into KS1, pupils can gain recognition as ‘Learning Champions’. Then in KS2, they aim to become ‘Learning Ambassadors’. The systems we have consistently developed across the whole school give every pupil regular opportunity to reflect on their learning in lessons and understand how they can become ‘even better still’. We also want our pupils to embrace every opportunity to learn a new skill or talent. The school provides a wide range of extra-curricular activities and aims to raise the aspirations of all through active encouragement of and recognition for the hobbies and talents they develop outside the classroom (at school and at home).

Moral

• The PSHE/Citizenship curriculum across the school incorporates current and very relevant topics such as living in a diverse community/world and having respect for different values and beliefs, racism, homophobic name-calling/bullying and substance misuse. The long-term overview identifies how each topic promotes the core British Values.
• Our behaviour policy reinforces moral teaching with our pupils. Staff generally have a good background knowledge of our pupils and their families and can therefore offer effective and appropriate care and support. Our caring staff will create ‘time’ for pupils who wish to discuss something with them, this includes making ‘good choices’. Pupils understand the system of behaviour management we operate across the school based on ‘Good to be Green’ (a staged approach) where consistently good behaviour is rewarded with a half-termly ‘celebration event’. All pupils are rewarded for showing positive behaviour through a range of incentives e.g. ‘Castle Coins’ to spend in our shop or save in our bank, house points and a host of weekly ‘celebration assembly’ awards, including star of the week, budding author, super reader, kind and thoughtful and much more! Restorative approaches to managing behaviour and encouraging positive relationships are used by all staff in our school.
• Our ‘Happy Lunchtimes’ programme along with ‘positive playground behaviour’ incentives has had a significant impact on improving the quality of behaviour and conduct of pupils during this less structured time of the school day. All lunchtime staff have received training in the approach which gives them ‘easy to use’ approaches to organising lunchtime games and managing the behaviour of pupils.

Social

• Our school has an active ‘School Council’ which provides our pupils with a ‘voice’ in school. Meetings are held every half term and co-ordinated by Miss Wilton, Y5 class teacher.
• Our pupils are encouraged to take on roles requiring a ‘sense of responsibility’ e.g. playground leaders, peace patrollers, wellbeing champions, garden monitors and reading partners etc.
• Weekly ‘celebration assemblies’ provide an opportunity to recognise the efforts and achievements of our pupils, both in and out of school.
• First-day calling takes place for all absent pupils.
• We have access to family support through our federation – this can offer support and advice to pupils and parents/carers in various ways e.g. child protection, attendance, health, uniform grants, housing, benefit entitlement etc.
• We enjoy a mutually supportive partnership with a nearby special school (Oakwood); arrangements involve exchange visits to our school by their pupils. Castlefort pupils are regularly invited to Oakwood for special events e.g. visiting theatre companies, musicians etc.
• Our school offers a wide range of extra-curricular activities to pupils. We believe these provide opportunities for them to develop crucial social skills such as co-operation, team work and decision-making etc. The clubs also allow pupils who are ‘less academic’ to ‘shine’ at other activities. This of course, increases pupils’ levels of self-esteem.
• Educational visits are a strong feature of our school. We plan visits to enhance our creative curriculum as we are aware that many of our pupils have limited ‘life experiences’. Our school mini-bus allows us to minimise transport costs.
• Whole school trips are also organised to create ‘long-lasting memories’ for our pupils e.g. theatre visits, seaside trips.
• Pupils enjoy a host of social events throughout the school year, including termly discos, Xmas/summer fayres and talent shows to name but a few!
• Local services e.g. fire, police, neighbourhood watch etc support learning activities taking place across the school.

Cultural

• Our RE and PSHE/Citizenship curriculum enable pupils to develop their understanding of and ability to value people’s diversity and equality.
• We recently reviewed teaching and learning programme aims to raise pupils’ awareness of issues surrounding ‘citizenship’; it includes themes such as the wider world, democracy, prejudice attitudes etc.
• Our pupils have enjoyed ‘shared’ residential experiences at Bryntysilio Outdoor Pursuits Centre in Wales in recent years with other Walsall schools having significantly greater ethnic diversity than Castlefort (Caldmore Primary and Hillary Primary). Pupils from both schools were commended for the harmonious relationships they developed during their stays at the centre. It was good to see pupils from each school engaging in games of football and cricket during unstructured times, and generally socialising so well.
• Our core modern foreign languages in school are Spanish and French. Pupils begin informal learning of Spanish in KS1; short lessons with a speaking and listening focus. As they move through KS2, pupils study the French language and cultural aspects in greater depth, developing competency and fluency.
• Our pupils develop an understanding of communities, including their own, through their PSHE/Citizenship curriculum and a range of ‘local’ partnerships the school is involved in e.g. Oakwood Special School, Shire Oak Academy etc.