At Wolston St Margaret’s, we aim to create a nurturing and inclusive community where everyone is encouraged to build positive relationships and feel a strong sense of belonging. Our school provides a secure and supportive foundation for all children, enabling us to work together to foster their spiritual, moral, social, and cultural growth. While the impact of this development cannot always be measured in tangible ways, it is essential that we maintain a clear framework and a caring ethos that serve as the firm foundation for every child’s personal and collective flourishing.

The Doughnut and The Hole (Liz Mills)

At Wolston St Margaret's C of E Primary School, when we are asked 'What is Spirituality?' Our answer is... 

It's just like a DOUGHNUT!

This delicious treat is us as a person, our body, mind and spirit, which includes the precious hole in the middle. While the soft, sweet outer ring can be easy to explain, the important inner space is often harder to understand but is equally important to the ‘whole’ of the doughnut.

It is the space inside the doughnut where our spiritual self lives; where our beliefs, faith and ideas support us to share our outer selves with the world.

Spiritual development focuses on relationships and connectedness; relationships with ourselves, others, the world and beyond.  It helps us have an understanding that there is something greater than self.

How we approach spirituality

A focus on spirituality enables our children to be happy, to flourish and to live life in all its fullness.

As a school, as well as using the doughnut analogy, we have chosen to use the Windows, Mirrors, Doors concept as a common reflective structure for spirituality: Windows (nursery), Windows and Mirrors (Reception and KS1), Windows, Mirrors and Doors (KS2).

Windows are for looking out onto the world and becoming aware of its wonders, both the ‘wows’ and ‘ows’; things that are ‘awe-full’ and make us wonder and be grateful and things that are ‘awful’ and make us wonder and ask questions. The whole curriculum and life itself are full of opportunities to recognise this sensitively.

Mirrors are for looking into and reflecting, alone and together, to see things more clearly, for thinking and asking important questions and learning from our own and each other’s responses. In schools, we must allow time for this for individual and group reflection and sharing of perspectives. Some subjects and times allow for this specifically, such as religious education and collective worship, but in all subjects there will be opportunities, unexpected or planned, when things just ‘crop up’. Handled sensitively, it is possible to make the most of all these times.

Doors are for looking through in order to then act or express this in some way in response; for moving on, making choices, and doing something creative, active and purposeful in response. This can simply be done through a change in attitude or behaviour or thinking. It can also be expressed powerfully through music or art or drama or dance and through some form of social action or specific acts of giving.

The documents below give further information about the importance of SMSC and how we, as a school, work to foster SMSC in all of our pupils.