Cultural Capital

‘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.'

National Curriculum

Subject Coordinator: Mrs Caroline Baker

Subject Link Governor: Barbra Dawson


What is Cultural Capital?

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 child will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.

Cultural capital promotes social mobility and success. Cultural capital is having assets that give children the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point.

Research shows that when children and families’ cultures are valued, both the child’s experience of learning and progress can benefit.

Cultural capital gives power. It helps children achieve goals, become successful, and rise up the social ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital.

Cultural Capital at CPS

Every child and family who joins our school will have their own knowledge and experiences that will link to their wider family and culture. This might include: languages, beliefs, traditions, cultural and family heritage, interests, travel and work.

At Cheadle Primary School, our 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.

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 Reception and beyond. These include trips within our local area, museums and historic places just to name a few.

Building experiences and knowledge by immersing children in the world around them is done by thinking about people around the world; appreciating and loving music; understanding how history has shaped our future; celebrating different cultures, traditions and faiths; educational visits linked to our topics; learning about people in our community; running charity events; showcasing talents; learning beyond the classroom; supporting our local community; learning about animal welfare and much more!

CLass Names

When we returned to school in September 2021, each class was given the name of a person as their class inspiration and mascot. A person who had perhaps overcome adversity and challenge in their life.

  • Our Early Years classes are now named after Captain Tom Moore, the author Julia Donaldson and Mother Theresa.

  • Year 1 classes are named after the astronaut Tim Peake and author Beatrix Potter;

  • Year 2 classes are Florence Nightingale and Mahatma Ghandi.

  • Year 3 classes have Dr Martin Luther King and fossil finder and palaeontologist Mary Anning as their inspiration.

  • Year 4 classes are named after Greta Thunberg and local Olympian Adam Peaty.

  • Year 5 classes have Anne Frank and Stephen Hawking

  • Year 6 classes are named after Marie Curie and Marcus Rashford.

Rationale

At Cheadle Primary School, we recognise that for children to aspire and be successful academically and in the wider areas of their lives, they need to be given rich and sustained opportunities to develop their cultural capital.

The school recognises that there are six key areas of development that are interrelated and cumulatively contribute to the sum of a child’s cultural capital:

  1. Personal Development

  2. Social Development, including political and current affairs awareness

  3. Physical Development

  4. Spiritual Development

  5. Moral Development

  6. Cultural development


Click here to find out more out our school's RESPECT values.

Summary of key areas of cultural curriculum

Personal Development

  • Citizenship, Personal, Social and Health Education provision

  • The school’s wider pastoral framework

  • Growth mind-set support – resilience development strategies

  • Transition support

  • Work to develop confidence e.g. supporting peers

  • Activities focused on building self-esteem via our Forest School

  • Mental Health & well-being provision

  • Nurture provision

Social Development

  • Personal, Social and Health Education provision

  • Pupil Voice

  • Pastoral support from all staff

  • Nurture provision

  • Family breakfast

  • Parent workshops

  • School council - Children's Leadership Team

  • Choir visits to the elderly at Christmas

  • House captains

  • Peer mentors

  • Sports clubs


Physical Development

  • The Physical Education curriculum

  • Sports Week

  • Healthy Eating Week, policies and catering provision

  • Anti-bullying and safeguarding policies and strategies

  • The Health Education dimension of our JIGSAW PSHE programme, including strands on drugs, smoking and alcohol

  • The extra-curricular clubs related to sports and well-being

Spiritual Development

  • Explore beliefs and experience

  • The RE curriculum

  • CPS RESPECT values

  • Respect faiths, feeling and values

  • Enjoy learning about ourselves, others and the surrounding world

  • Use imagination and creativity

  • Reflect

Moral Development

  • School vision and aims

  • CPS RESPECT values

  • Awards Assemblies

  • The school’s Behaviour policy: dojos, golden star.

  • Gardening Club

  • Contributions to local, national and international charitable projects

  • Pupil voice: CLT, Reading Buddies, Playground Leaders, Eco Team

  • Displays

  • Understanding cause and effect, making the right choices

  • Nurture provision


Cultural Development

  • Citizenship education through PSHE

  • Arts education including Music and Drama

  • Access to the languages and cultures of other countries through the Geography and MFL curriculum

  • Promotion of racial equality and community cohesion through the school’s ethos and British Values informing all policy and practice.

  • International Day

  • Assemblies

  • Charity events – Red Nose Day; Children in Need.

  • World Book Day

  • Library

  • Choir

Activity Passports - Coming Sept 2022!

Here at Cheadle Primary School we believe that every child should have the opportunity to be extraordinary and future ready through a curriculum which is knowledge rich, bold and courageous.


Our curriculum aims to provide children with an education that is broad and balanced building on the knowledge, understanding and skills of all children, whatever their starting points, as they progress through each Key Stage.


To support and enhance this further, we are issuing each child with an Activity Passport. This Activity Passport will be assigned to your child on their Google Classroom account and will be full of rewarding and exciting experiences, some of which will be done in school, but most can be easily completed with just a little bit of your input at home.


The activities include baking cakes, going somewhere on a train, playing a board game or just making a daisy chain. All we ask is that every time you complete something on the list, you date the activity on your child’s Passport on Google Classroom. You can also share photos of your child’s completed activities by uploading them to Google Classroom, and if you have given us permission, we can share them on our school social media and school website.


We hope you will enjoy working through this list with your child, and that you both have fun together or as a family. Please do keep ticking off the activities throughout the year.

Please see the passport below.

My_Activity_Passport.pdf

Cultural Capital Overview

There are works of art, songs and pieces of music which we believe every adult should at the very least be familiar with. Therefore, we have devised a core list. One person's list of core knowledge is different to another person's, however, we are confident that our list ensures we are equipping our pupils with enough so that when they are adults, they are able to walk into any room, anywhere in the world and have a conversation with anyone about anything.

Please click on this link to view our Cultural Capital overview

Core Art

Core Fiction

Core Music

Core Non-Fiction

Core Poems

Core Phase and Sayings