What is the simplest way of showing Ofsted where spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is happening in the school?

The fact is that auditing or mapping what’s happening in terms of spiritual, moral, social and cultural development across the school can be a complex and time-consuming task. Not least because it runs across so many departments.

But I’d like to suggest that this doesn’t have to be the case. Indeed over the last five years hundreds of schools have used a simple and effective tool to audit and track SMSC provision.

It is a tool that makes recording and tracking easy, and, as I shall show below, it is a tool that Ofsted inspectors have valued in a report.

What we set out to develop five years ago, and what we have constantly refined, is a simple tool that is quick and easy to use by everyone in the school so that each colleague’s contribution to SMSC can be added to the record within moments.

But there was more, for we also wanted to make sure that with our approach pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is better coordinated across the curriculum. And again that is what we have achieved.

Finally, as I noted above, we wanted to produce something that the Ofsted inspectorate could immediately see the value of; something that the inspectors would see as a useful tool in planning teaching and learning.

That was our final aim, and I believe we have achieved that too, because in an Ofsted report in April 2013 on a school that uses SMSC Gridmaker, we found this comment:

“Pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development is better co-ordinated across the curriculum. An on-line audit of all the activities promoting development is enabling gaps to be filled and resources shared.”

You can see Gridmaker in action on our website. Alternatively you can try it yourself for free by clicking here.

If you would like to know any more please call 0115 942 8912 or email me at patricia@opeus.org

And there’s a final point. Gridmaker can also capture provision of PSHE and Citizenship, and that facility is included within the standard package.

Tricia Cadman