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Cultural Capital

What does Cultural Capital mean at The Giles Nursery and Infants' School?

Cultural Capital is everywhere in our world. It is in our homes, our streets, our town and further across the country and the wider world. We have a rich and diverse community within the Giles Nursery and Infants’ School with over 30 languages spoken and many different faiths and religions.

The Cultural Learning Alliance believe that cultural capital is a way to "celebrate and embrace different backgrounds, heritage, language and traditions of all children living in this country".

At The Giles Nursery and Infants' School we celebrate each child's and their families' own knowledge and experiences that link to their culture and the wider community. It is important that all children have the opportunity to share their own knowledge of different languages, beliefs, traditions, cultural heritage, family heritage, interests, travel and work. The children at our school enjoy sharing what they know and their own experiences as well as learning from their peers. We embrace the different cultures within our school and in our surrounding communities.

Ofsted and Cultural Capitalism:

"Cultural capital has an impact on children’s access to education. We define cultural capital as ‘the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success’ or ‘essential knowledge that children need to be educated citizens’. When judging the quality of education in an early years setting, inspectors will consider how well leaders use the curriculum to enhance children’s experiences and opportunities, particularly those of the most disadvantaged children." Gov.uk

Our School:

Cultural Capitalism is something that is applied to all curriculum subject areas. At our school, we believe that the key to cultural capital is through curiosity and creativity. It is important for children to have the desire to find out more about themselves, where they come from, where they belong, where they feel safe and confident, and how they can grow as a person. This will equip them with the cultural knowledge to propel them further in their education, careers and social development. We aspire to create holistic, well-rounded individuals equipped with the personal skills, behaviour and knowledge to succeed in life.

Research shows that when children and families' cultures are valued, both the child's experience of learning and progress can benefit (Husain et al., 2018, p. 4 and Gazzard, E. 2018 in chalmers, H. and Crisfield, E. 2019)

At The Giles Nursery and Infants' School, children benefit from a topic-led, creative curriculum that builds on what they know and understand already. We believe that it is important to provide the children with experiences in which they can all be actively involved in the learning and take part in situations that they might not have previous experiences of. This is of paramount importance for their ongoing successes. We plan carefully for the children to be involved in rich and engaging experiences. These include trips to the local woodland areas, walking through our local area, visits to places of worship, connections with the museum, workshops set up in school, visitors coming into the school to share their knowledge, assemblies and many more. Our curriculum encourages pupils to experience awe and wonder of the world by developing their curiosity. By tapping into their potential, we are able to widen their horizons so that they aspire and achieve bright futures whatever their starting points.

Our school recognises that there are 6 key areas of development that are interrelated and cumulatively contribute to the sum of a pupil’s cultural capital:

1. Personal Development

  • Topic-based educational visits - church, woods, local area, zoo, castle.
  • EYFS, Year 1, Year 2 library
  • Celebration assemblies
  • When learning about other countries we learn about their music, dance, food as well as their climate and traditions.
  • PSHCE Curriculum including Jigsaw/SEAL
  • Science - STEM and well-being weeks
  • Healthy Schools
  • Sessions with family support worker
  • Yoga and mindfulness sessions
  • Value of the month

2. Physical Development

  • Extra-curricular activities
  • Sporting apprentices
  • Sporting events in school and outside of school 
  • Sports day
  • Celebration of sporting achievements
  • Daily Mile
  • Yoga workshop
  • Dance festival
  • Disability awareness – PSHCE activity – blindfolded to experience blind – what would it be like?
  • Dance workshops
  • Forest School/Outdoor learning
  • Physical brain/sensory breaks

3. Social and Emotional Development

  • Forest School/Outdoor learning
  • School Council/Eco Council
  • Playground leaders
  • Full time Family Support Worker based in school – well-being work.
  • Support work from external professionals including play therapists and family support workers.
  • The feelings monster (KS1 approach to developing emotional literacy)
  • Construction Club
  • Transition – booklets, visits.
  • Cross curricular art collaborations with the Junior School
  • Stevenage Creative Network events

4. Spiritual Development

  • Visits to the local church
  • Exploring religious buildings
  • Assemblies delivered by Bridge Builders charity.
  • School Prayer
  • RE curriculum
  • Celebrations/festivals - Chinese New Year, Diwali, Christmas, Hanukkah, Sukkot, Ramadan, Eid ul Fitr
  • Religious festival role play areas
  • Assemblies
  • Forest School
  • School Council
  • British Values
  • Stories
  • The First Musician – art and music
  • Musician of the Month
  • Choir club

5. Moral Development

  • Contribution towards national charitable projects – Children in Need, Odd Socks – Down Syndrome awareness, Red Nose Day, The Poppy Appeal, Garden House Hospice
  • Stars of the week
  • Value of the month award
  • Transition – booklets, visits
  • School Awards – Hertfordshire Quality Standards, Stevenage Sporting Futures, Healthy Schools, Green Tree School awards.
  • Collecting for harvest
  • Black History
  • Royal British Legion visitor
  • Democracy and voting
  • Collecting for the reverse advent for the food bank at Christmas time
  • Collective recycling

6. Cultural Development

  • Dance and Music workshops from around the world
  • Links with Stevenage Museum
  • Musician of the month
  • The Creative Network
  • Theatre Visits to school
  • Pantomime visits
  • Educational workshops – The Great Fire of London, Life in the Victorian House, Seasides Then and Now.
  • Visits from Important people 
  • Year 1 History of Stevenage topic
  • Bilingual books
  • Visitors – People who help us.
  • STEM Week - British Science Week
  • One world week
  • PE unit Team building
  • Living Nativity
  • Role play areas
  • The Creative Network
  • Exploration of various artists, local and famous. Different cultural backgrounds.
  • Displays
  • Celebrating national months/days
  • World book day

 

Gallery

Please refer to class pages for photographs.

 

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