Cultural Capital at St Bernadette Catholic Primary School

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 use to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.  Cultural capital is central not only to our curriculum but also to our school ethos and values of tolerance, respect, kindness, forgiveness and love of our neighbour.

At St Bernadette Catholic Primary School, we know the importance of educating children wholly; we strive to provide experiences for them that enrich them educationally but also spiritually, morally, socially and culturally.  We celebrate the richness and variety of knowledge, languages, beliefs, traditions, heritage and experiences that our children and families bring to the cultural capital of the school community.  We know that when children’s experiences and cultures are valued, there are benefits, not only to confidence and self-worth but also to their learning and progress.

In our school, children benefit from a flexible 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.

We strive to ensure that our cultural capital gives power to help our children achieve goals, become successful, and rise up the social ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital. Cultural capital is having assets that give children the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point.

Providing children with experiences as they progress through school is an important step, adding to rich and engaging learning across the curriculum. We carefully plan for children to have progressively richer experiences in pre-school and beyond. Examples include; trips to the local park, visits to places of worship, museums, farms, sports and music venues in addition to a range of visitors into school. 

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.’ “