Cultural Capital  

What does Cultural Capital at Burraton Community 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.

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

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 gives power. It helps 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.

Ofsted say the following about Cultural Capital …

‘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.

At Burraton, 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.’

At Burraton Community Primary 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 experience of, is 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 from Burraton’s Nursery to Year 6. These include trips to the local park, shops and visits to places of worship, museums, sports and historical venues to name just a few.

 Burraton Passports

The school has audited the experiences and lifestyles of our school community. As a consequence of reviewing the feedback, we have developed an understanding of what are the typical and habitual lifestyle choices for many of our families who attend our school. Having a valuable understanding of our community has enabled us to create Burraton Passports. Our Burraton Passports outline our commitment to developing pupil’s cultural capital and the key opportunities we will offer to enable pupils to build on the life experiences they already experience within their family and their locality. Burraton Passports are progressive, with new opportunities being facilitated each year. Our Passports will be modified as the needs and activities of our community change over time. 

The 4 Burraton Curriculums and how they contribute to Cultural Capital

At Burraton Community Primary School, we have 4 distinct curriculums which shape the offer we provide to our school community. We have The National Curriculum, The Basic Curriculum (R.E, RHSE, Work related experiences), The Local Curriculum (understanding our heritage and our unique locality) and the Hidden Curriculum (transferable life skills and dispositions).

Sitting at the heart of the experiences we provide, we aim to promote opportunities for diversity, inclusion, equality and to grow social mobility. Understanding the culture of our children and our community helps us to ensure that we provide experiences which will enrich pupil’s life chances to survive and thrive in a changing world. We want our children to be ambitious, to be aware of lifestyles, experiences, and opportunities beyond their familiar world. We share our outward looking approach to the children’s education with their families and with our local community.

Here are just some of the ways in which we are committed to ensuring that Cultural Capital is addressed in each of our 4 curriculums.

The National Curriculum

Our subject leaders and year group colleagues have identified opportunities to bring subjects to life and to provide opportunities to look beyond simple view of a concept. We are careful in selecting resources and materials which are diverse in nature and bring a concept to life. Through making links to prior learning and choosing engaging themes for learning, the curriculum enables pupils to be curious and outward looking individuals who seek to grow their knowledge, skills and experiences through enquiry-based learning. Where possible, educational visits and visitors to school are arranged; thus, bringing authenticity to the children’s experiences and learning.

The Basic Curriculum

The Basic curriculum, including RSE and the RE curriculums, enable our pupils to learn more about their sense of self, belonging, their rights and their own personal identity. In understanding their own values, aspirations, beliefs, and identification, we teach the children to show a respect and tolerance for others whose own identity differs to their own. It is critical for our pupils to recognise that diversity exists in our town despite there being limited visible, racial diversity. We teach our children about the 9 recognised Protected Characteristics and we are careful to promote equality and rights within the children’s experiences. Within their RE and RSE lessons, children learn that personal differences enrich our communities through a rich tapestry of perspectives and cultural beliefs.   

The Local (Heritage) Curriculum

Our children live in a unique locality, in the most southwestern part of the UK. Children at Burraton are explicitly taught about their heritage. Cornwall has its own cultural and historical importance. We feel that our pupils benefit from understanding their heritage to help with own identity and place within the world. Through their appreciation of their county, they can begin to compare their locality with other areas of the UK and overseas, recognising the features which make their home county the special place that it is. Living in an area of the country where there are high levels of deprivation, and through surveying our parents, we know that some of our children do not have the opportunity to experience all that Cornwall has to offer. Therefore, we are committed to teaching our Heritage Curriculum through progressive, engaging themes during the Summer of each year; however, understanding our heritage sits within our school intent and to that end, we are mindful to build opportunities to embrace our local culture throughout the year.

The Hidden Curriculum

At Team Burraton, we are passionate in ensuring that our curricular offer includes a strong personal development programme. In order to improve social mobility, we must provide experiences where we enable our pupils to develop resilience and perseverance; we do this through our progressive programme of building our Learning Muscles. Also, we teach the children about issues in the world, never shying away from big news topics; we do this through assemblies such as our Newsday Tuesdays.  We know our children need to have excellent attendance; we promote attendance at school by providing a safe and exciting place where children want to learn and be curious to know more. We develop aspiration by providing experiences beyond the school day in the form extra curricular activities and our Aspiration Day. We promote positive relationships through the delivery of an impactful PSHE syllabus.  

 At Burraton, Cultural Capital is consciously developed from the earliest days of Nursery through to Year 6. We are committed to ensuring that our pupils understand who they are, their heritage and how there are many different opportunities in society for them to flourish through learning and respecting differences in humankind, careers, places and values.

 Cultural Passport EYFSCultural Passport Nursery

Cultural Passport Year 1Cultural Passport Year 2

 Cultural Passport Year 3Cultural Passport Year 4

Cultural Passport Year 5Cultural Passport Year 6