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The Church of England

SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural), Christian Values and Character Development

The following gives us an understanding of how our school has based its ethos on the Church of England’s views on education in a church school.

“Character education requires learning and development to be set into context against an understanding of what it means to be human and how the world works. While lists of virtues and values can be a helpful way of assisting people in understanding what character education may look like in the classroom, these are insufficient without a coherent and rigorous sense of purpose underpinning them. This sense of purpose will, inevitably, be culturally specific, rooted in particular communities and their beliefs and practices.”

The Fruits of the Spirit – A Church of England Discussion Paper on Character Education Executive summary

“The Church school offers a spiritual and moral basis for the development of human wholeness and a sure foundation for personal and social values based on the person and ministry of Christ. The Church school offers a distinctive language for understanding life and interpreting human experience. As a community of faith, the Church school should, in its best expression, reflect the nature of the Trinity, a life shared and defined by reference to others. Here we can begin to discover who we are, why we are, and – perhaps most importantly – what we might be.”

The Way Ahead, Church of England Schools in the New Millennium