Cultural Capital
16 Feb 2024
At Downsell Primary School, cultural capital is a key part of our curriculum. It is woven throughout all aspects of school life; as we seek to empower children to believe in themselves, by ensuring that they are aware of all the opportunities that exist around them.
Every child and family who joins Downsell Primary will have their own knowledge and experiences that will link to their culture and wider family. This might include: languages, beliefs, traditions, cultural and family heritage, interests, travel and work. We celebrate and welcome this!
Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a child can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a pupil will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.
Cultural Capital allows children, no matter what their starting point in life, to have the desire to aspire to great things and achieve social mobility. It provides children with life experiences, foundations for success and the ability to achieve goals without the need for financial capital or wealth.
Ofsted define cultural capital as:
“As part of making the judgement about the quality of education, inspectors will consider the extent to which schools are equipping pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.
Our understanding of ‘knowledge and cultural capital’ is derived from the following wording in the national curriculum: ‘It is the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.’
We provide Cultural Capital opportunities through:
- Providing our children with an engaging, broad and balanced curriculum, which is carefully adapted and catered to the needs of our children.
- A variety of extra-curricular activities that will improve engagement, self-esteem and mental and physical well-being.
- School trips linked to curriculum topics to promote a love of learning and engagement.
- Teaching children key life-skills that they can continue to use throughout Secondary School and further.
- Educating children on different cultures and ways of life and celebrating differences.
- Providing our children with the knowledge of the variety of occupations, they can aspire to be through trips, speakers and research.