At Combs Infant School we continually evaluate the variety of opportunities we provide for our children, to ensure that they are diverse, interesting and relevant to both the curriculum and the children’s lives.
Every child and family who joins Combs Infant School has their own unique knowledge and experiences that links to their cultural and wider family. This might include language, belief, traditions, cultural and family heritage, interest, travel and work.
Cultural Capital is an accumulation of knowledge, experiences, behaviours and skills that a child can draw upon to be successful within society, careers and in their future lives. This also includes a child’s ability to demonstrate their awareness of other cultures and understanding of people different to themselves.
Cultural Capital helps children achieve goals, become successful and overcome any disadvantages that they might face. Providing children with new experiences and knowledge that close the gap between them and their peers support their want and drive to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point.
At Combs Infant School, our children experience a wide and varied curriculum, which aids engagement, development and motivation in children. The curriculum builds on what the children already know and create curiosity beyond what the national curriculum creates. We believe that gradually increasing the children’s experiences throughout the school is important to their ongoing success and challenges them to think differently than they did before.
Gradually widening the children’s knowledge and experiences as they progress throughout the school is an important step in providing rich and engaging learning across the curriculum. We plan for these experiences across the school to ensure that they are continuous and progressively richer.
We pledge that all children will:
• Visit a museum
• Experience an author visit
• Experience a poet visit
• Experience Fire Service visit
• Represent the school at an event
• Be given a job of responsibility
• Cook and bake
• Dress up and dress down
• Build a fire and toast marshmallows/seasonal food
• Care for others and learn how to be a good friend
• Learn about where they live, so they know their local area well
• Visit a farm
• Develop an understanding of different cultures and how to respect them
• Perform in front of an audience such as singing in care home in the
community/nativity/class assemblies
• Know how they can help their environment
• Experience customs from various religions, celebrate festivals and cultural events
• Recite poetry
• Grow and harvest fruits and vegetables
• Participate in Sports Day
• Handle a range of animals and insects
• The Harvest collection is donated to the local food bank
• All children attend the annual Remembrance event
• Take part in fundraising for different causes such Red nose day and Children in Need
How will your children benefit from good cultural capital?
Research indicates that children will find life more challenging without adequate cultural capital, from everyday social interactions to future job interviews.
The better language, social skills and knowledge a child has when entering the school system, the better they can fit into it. On the other hand, if children come to school with a poorer vocabulary, less knowledge, limited experiences and a poorer understanding of how to behave in the school setting, they are already at a disadvantage compared to their peers.
Therefore, for many, helping all children to develop their cultural capital is a matter of equality and social justice.