What is a cultural capital?

“Education for global citizenship helps enable young people to develop the core competencies which allow them to actively engage with the world, and help to make it a more just and sustainable place.” - Oxfam.org.uk

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 that a student needs to 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.

What does Cultural Capital Mean at Bottesford CE Primary School?

Every child and family who joins our setting 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.

At Bottesford CE 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 ‘Character Muscles’ (Growth Mindset), understanding of SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development) and British Values enrich and underpin our curriculum to ensure all of our children are prepared and equipped to succeed in their futures in an ever-changing world.

British Values and Growth Mindset

At Bottesford, we actively take opportunities to teach British values and feel this is embedded through our weekly assemblies and interwoven in our enriching curriculum.

Developing a Growth Mindset is interwoven throughout our curriculum and referenced to regularly throughout the children's school experiences. We encourage the children to reflect on where they are as learners and equip them with strategies in order to develop their growth mindset. We encourage the children to apply their ‘Character Muscles’ in their learning in order to step outside of their comfort zone and challenge themselves further. Building resilience is an integral part of supporting the children in realising anything is possible. We actively encourage children to 'change their words' and the 'power of yet.'

Whilst at school, our children benefit from a flexible, broad and progressive curriculum that builds on what they understand and know already. We believe that exposure, not only to culture but also to situations in which the children might not have previous experiences of, is of paramount importance to their ongoing successes.

 Gradually widening children’s experiences as they progress through school is an important step in providing rich and engaging learning across the curriculum. We plan carefully for children to have progressively richer experiences in Early Years and beyond. These include trips to the local park, shops and visits to places of worship, museums, sports competitions and music venues just to name a few.

We strongly believe that the starting blocks in EYFS can shape the foundation for each child as they begin their journey through our school. In order to develop the children in to well-rounded individuals, we believe Cultural Capital is developed through four key areas within our curriculum: 

Character:

Character education is a learning process that enables children and adults in a school community to understand, care about and act on core ethical values such as: respect, justice, citizenship, and responsibility for self and others. Upon such core values, we form the attitudes and actions that are the hallmark of safe, healthy and informed communities that serve as the foundation of our society.

As a school we promote character (‘Character Muscles’) through different activities that:

•Create a sense of pride, belonging and identity in our pupils and encourage them to show excellent behaviours towards their peers, teachers and everyone in our community.

•Demonstrate and promote respect and kindness towards others exemplifying good manners, courtesy and make everyone feel valued and have a sense of belonging.

•Show resilience and confidence in the face of adversity and promote the value of volunteering and service to others.

Culture:

Culture is the invisible bond which ties people together. It refers to the pattern of human activity. As a school we engage with children and provide meaningful opportunities for all.

We firmly believe that our cultural values and beliefs manifest themselves through our lifestyles and that the importance of culture lies in close association with the different ways of thinking and living. It is therefore vital to provide different theme day and awareness days that allow the children to get involved.

Our moral values represent our culture - which link to our school values and ‘Character Muscles’. It is fundamental to be focused on what type of children we want to send in to the wider world. Being cultured opens doors to deeper conversations, connections to others and an appreciation of history and rich experiences. This can be achieved through wider curriculum development and opportunities that we provide to all our children.

Skills:

Learning new skills is an important aspect of growth in all walks of life. Developing new skills should be something that pushes a child out of their comfort zone. Challenging an individual is something that develops resilience and patience. These are characteristics (Character Muscles) that will help them to deal with failure in a proactive and productive way. It is our belief that learning something new and succeeding gives a sense of accomplishment and builds resilience.

Leadership:

‘Are people born with characteristics that make them leaders, or can leaders be made?’

Some people are considered natural leaders because of their inherent characteristics. Mahatma Gandhi, Emily Pankhurst, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and Jacinda Arden are examples. However, research in several fields—including emotional intelligence, social-emotional learning, and positive psychology shows that anyone, even young children, can learn and develop leadership qualities. As a school we promote the ethos of every child is a leader.

People can choose to be leaders, starting with self-leadership - taking responsibilities. We believe that how people lead their lives, their choices, the contributions they make, and the development of their character are at the heart of self-leadership.

The same applies to the definition of student leaders and how they are created. We aim to develop leaders through the use of ‘Character Muscles’ being used in daily practice within our classrooms. It is our vision that every child is a leader and that they should have many characteristics such as: being trustworthy, being responsible, being respectful, and being resilient. It is our responsibility to embed a culture of positive listening skills and to develop children as great listeners and communicators. Leadership in our culture and community provides the opportunity to develop lifelong learners.

Providing leadership opportunities for children to work in groups to problem solve activities will develop resilience and patience. We believe that working in groups where children are able to get along and work well with others will develop strong teamwork skill. However, we believe it important to provide opportunities for pupils that don’t always get along to work together and support them accordingly. We believe this is essential in developing good communication skills along-side tolerance and patience. This can be achieved through different nurture groups.