Our Approach to SMSC

2025/26

School Council News - May 2026
It has been pretty quite on the School Council front lately.
We have helped Mr Lumb when he was interviewing for a new Attendance person to help get children to school more.
​We are starting to look ahead to helping the Year 5 children with their speeches to become the new Head Boy and Girl. We remember how nervous we were last year, so will try to help them stay calm when it is their turn. Lots of Love - Holly and Noah x

School Council News - March 2026
After the amazing trip to London in January, February was a quieter month. Noah and I helped Mr Lumb find a replacement for Miss Bassue. While we will miss her, we are looking forward to working with Miss Holdsworth, who we think will be brilliant.
We are looking forward to a litter pick with the rest of the School Council and a trip to the Civic Hall this month to take part in Leeds' Student Council.
See you soon, Holly and Noah The Head Girl and Boy.

School Council News - February 2026
On Monday, 26th of January, the school council met at the train station at 6.30 (IN THE MORNING!) to get on a train to go to London. We were going to visit the Houses of Parliament and to see Hilary Benn MP. We loved going on the underground, visiting the amazing buildings and in the afternoon, walking to Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. The best bit, was when we had a pizza at Pizza Express before we headed home.
Noah and Holly Head Boy & Girl

School Council News - January 2026
January is the month we have all been waiting for… We are going to London! For those of you that don't know, every year we take the School Council on a trip to the House of Parliament, to see the world's oldest School Council. While we are there, we are also going to go and have a look at Buckingham Palace. Mr Lumb says he knows the King, but we think he might be making it up…

School Council News - December 2025
We are really excited that Christmas is on its way and that we have managed to persuade Mr Lumb that we can have our School Discos back. It is years since the last Disco - maybe even before COVID - so we can't wait to come to school and show everyone our dance moves! Reception and Yr 1-3 Disco is on Wednesday 17th December and Yr 4-6 are on Thursday 18th December.We hope to see you all there.
​Holly and Noah - Your Head Girl & Boy

School Council News - November 2025
We are all so proud of Holly, our Head Girl. She put herself forward to be the Children's Mayor of Leeds and got to the final. She went to the Civic Hall with her family before the holidays and did a great job presenting her ideas to help the children of Leeds. While she didn't get the role, we think she is amazing and represented our school brilliantly. Well Done Holly!

School Council News - October 2025
Welcome to October Everyone! This is Holly (Head Girl) and Noah (Head Boy).
We are very excited to get going on the school council, now that each class has chosen the children who will be on the council. We are excited to find out how Holly has done in her bid to be the Children's mayor of Leeds. Every one has been voting in the school, including Mr Lumb who voted 20 times!
We will let you know how she got on in the November newsletter.
​Holly and Noah.

School Council News - September 2025
Welcome back everyone!
This is Holly, your Head Girl. This year I am a candidate for the Leeds Youth Mayor. I want to represent our great school so please vote for me!
You can use the QR code on the posters around school and on the back of this newsletter to access the voting.
I want to break down barriers and I am ready to lead Leeds forward.
Holly Saunders.
​Head Girl.

At Hunslet Carr Primary School, we have three simple rules that the whole school community abide by.

During our INSET Day in September 2023, the staff team discussed, shared and created what these rules look like in the classroom, in the playground and throughout the school.

Our Relationship Policy is built upon giving recognition to the ‘always’ children who go above and beyond expectations every day. To praise these children, we have whole school recognition systems such as:

There will be times when children do not are not ready, respectful and safe. We will respond in a clear, consistent manner. 

At Hunslet Carr, children's achievements are celebrated in Star Assemblies. These assemblies instill in them a sense of worth and create ambitious pupils who believe in their Growth Mindset. 

Our Wellbeing assembly questions focus around the key areas that create a healthy wellbeing - how to understand and manage our emotions, the importance of being   healthy, how to develop good relationships, how to have a positive attitude through Growth Mindset and why it is important to attend school every day.
Each half term the Wellbeing Team meet to discuss the themes, questions and how to promote wellbeing that will support children throughout their education and their life.
Children are taught about making 'good' choices and have a full understanding that they are the ones that make choices about how they act, whether those choices are well made or not. This continues through the school's Good to be Green    behaviour policy.
Our children take on jobs that help to make the school function well as well as more formal jobs such as the School Council. They apply for the roles and so freely choose the way they will contribute to our community. Participating in these groups helps to develop them as citizens.
Individual liberty helps the children and staff to understand what the key features of a healthy positive environment are and enable individuals freedoms to be maintained and respected. For example, the work around respecting different family models and discussing homophobic bullying is essential to ensure that all individuals can come to school free from prejudice.

One of the ways we teach the children to have   Mutual Respect   is through our curriculum. 
In RE the children are taught to have   Mutual Respect   for people of all faiths or people who do not have a faith.  We teach RE using the Leeds agreed syllabus and add to the children’s learning experiences by taking them to a different place of religious worship every year they are with us.

We encourage all children to attend these visits and ask parents with reservations to put these in writing and meet with the headteacher, Martin Lumb before withdrawing their child for legitimate religious beliefs.  In this way we are also modelling Mutual Respect and Tolerance to our whole community.  

An example of a letter to Year 2 regarding their trip to the Islamic Mosque.
Year 2 School Trip
Dear Parents / Carers,
As part of our RE topic, ‘Special Places’, we will be visiting a Mosque. Every year group visits a different place of worship throughout their time at Hunslet Carr. Last year the children visited a church and this year we are visiting a mosque.
The school follows the Leeds Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education and it is written in our policies that as a school we promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education.
The children will be learning about why a mosque is special to the Muslim faith and will be comparing it to other religions. The children are very excited about experiencing a different culture.
The date of the trip is on Tuesday 17th March. Both classes will be visiting for half a day and they will have lunch at school as normal.
Please note that Religious Education is part of the National Curriculum and underlines our principles of the school in promoting an understanding, tolerance and mutual respect between different cultures and beliefs. If anyone has strong religious beliefs that means they would not like their child to visit the mosque or any other place of worship in subsequent years then they must write a letter explaining their reasons to Mr Lumb, followed by a meeting. As this is an educational trip, parents would be required to provide appropriate alternative work around their own religion.
Please feel free to speak to us if you have any questions regarding the trip.
Kind regards,
Key Stage 1 Team

An example of the headteacher’s response to a parent requesting their child to be excused from a religious trip.
Dear ____________________
I am sorry to hear that you have requested to withdraw your son/daughter from our visit to…
The visit is an exciting opportunity for our pupils to learn about different faiths and ensure that they are aware of the diverse nature of modern Britain.
Religious Education forms part of the basic curriculum in schools and its teaching is enshrined in law.
The school follows the Leeds Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education and part of the curriculum encourages children to study Christianity in great detail, as well as finding out about Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam through school trips, visits from outside speakers and class teaching.
The school recognises that parents have the right to withdraw their child from RE in whole or in part, and provide alternative work.
However, the school is aware that children growing up in south Leeds are part of a community that is rapidly changing and that they will need to live side by side with people from other faiths and cultures, and it is aware that it has a duty under the Equality Act 2010 to promote good relations between people of different beliefs and ethnicities as part of its single equality duty.
The Governing Body fully supports this trip and the teaching of RE, including Islam, as it ensures that the school meets its obligation to teach the children about British Values, specifically mutual respect and tolerance
It is the governors' expectation that the visit to the mosque will provide an insight for pupils into the nature of British Islam, help them understand how Islam is presented in the media and that groups like ISIS are not a true reflection of the Islam followed by the vast majority of Muslims in Britain.
As a school we have a responsibility to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural education and are judged on the effectiveness of our planned provision by Ofsted. The visit to … significantly contributes to this area of a pupil’s development which is part of preparing all pupils for a life in modern Britain.
A full risk assessment has been conducted for the visit and there is no more risk attached to this visit than any other school visit.  The place of worship we are visiting runs regular school visits. Their website details are…if you would like to find out more.    
Many schools in Leeds run successful visits to a range of places of worship within Leeds and beyond. I am happy to share some case studies with you if you would like to know more about the nature and impact of such visits.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss your decision to withdraw your child from the visit and have made an appointment to see me at ______________.  If this date is not convenient would you please call the office to rearrange.
 
Kind Regards,
Mr Martin Lumb

We teach our children what Respect is and how important it is to treat everyone with respect. We celebrate diversity and ensure the school celebrates key dates in the calendar year for all religions, cultures and significant events. Our PSHE curriculum enables children to discuss and respect the differences between people such as differences of faith, ethnicity, disability, gender or sexuality and differences in family situations.
Each week, our children access lessons focused on managing relationships and friendships as well as managing conflict respectfully through our Happy Healthy Time lessons. Further to this, our PSHE curriculum incorporates MindMate lessons each half term. 
During an INSET day in September 2023, the staff team discussed what skills we wanted our children to leave Year 6 with. These skills are the foundation of what we strive to achieve as a school.