Cultural Capital
Cultural Capital
What is a Cultural capital?
Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a pupil can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a student will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work. Cultural capital promotes social mobility and success in our stratified society. Cultural capital gives a student power and it helps them achieve goals, become successful, and rise up the social ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital. Cultural capital is having assets that give students the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point.
Our Cultural Capital
At Smeeth Community Primary School, our curriculum is designed to instil high aspirations in all of our children and to encourage them to become resilient, life-long learners who embrace challenges and continue to grow and develop their cultural capital. Our children will be inspired to follow whichever path they choose whilst being well-rounded, conscientious global citizens. Our school values, understanding of Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development and British Values enrich and underpin our curriculum to ensure Smeeth children are prepared and equipped to succeed in their futures in an ever-changing world.
There are six key areas of development that are interrelated and cumulatively contribute to a child’s Cultural Capital:
- Personal Development
- Social Development
- Physical Development
- Spiritual Development
- Moral Development
- Cultural Development
Each Year Group makes its own unique contribution to children’s Cultural Capital development and supports SMSC across the school.
- Personal Development
- Careers Information;
- Personal Finance Education;
- Citizenship, Personal, Social and Health Education provision;
- The school’s wider pastoral framework;
- Resilience development strategies;
- Transition support;
- Work to develop confidence e.g. public speaking;
- Activities focused on building self-esteem;
- Mental Health & well-being provision.
2. Social Development
- Citizenship, Personal, Social and Health Education provision;
- Volunteering and charitable works;
- Pupil Voice – School Council;
- Provisions linked to the school’s Healthy Schools’ Accreditation;
- In school and wider community engagement;
- Pastoral support;
- Access to counselling.
3. Physical Development
- The Physical Education curriculum;
- Healthy Eating policies and catering provision;
- Anti-bullying and safeguarding policies and strategies;
- The Health Education dimension of the PSHE programme, including strands on drugs, smoking and alcohol;
- The extra-curricular programme related to sports and well-being;
- The celebration of sporting achievement including personal fitness and competitive sport;
- Cycling proficiency training and Cycling to School Safely protocol;
- Activities available during unstructured time- lunch and break times;
- Activity-based trips;
- Curriculum units related to food preparation and nutrition;
- The promotion of walking or cycling to school.
4. Spiritual Development
- The Religious Education curriculum;
- Collective acts of reflection;
- Support for the expression of individual faiths;
- Inter-faith and faith-specific activities and speakers;
- Visits to religious buildings and centres;
5. Moral Development
- The Religious Education curriculum;
- The school’s Behaviour Management policy;
- Contributions to local, national and international charitable projects.
6. Cultural Development
- Promotion of racial equality and community cohesion through the school’s ethos, informing all policy and practice. Citizenship Education through PSHE;
- Access to the Arts;
- Access to the languages and cultures of other countries through the curriculum and trips and visits;