Cultural Capital

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a student can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence; it is one of the key ingredients a student will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work. Cultural capital gives a student power. It helps them achieve goals, become successful, and rise up the social ladder without necessarily having wealth or financial capital. Also, it is having assets that give students the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point.

At St Marys, 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.

At St Mary’s we strive to………..

• Provide an inspiring, broad & balanced and aspirational curriculum that provides ALL children with a diverse and rich set of memorable experiences

• Develop inspirational and innovative leaders, at all levels, that continually strive for excellence

• Promote exceptional behaviour and attitudes that supports learners to learn and teachers to teach

• To instil aspiration and high expectations for learning to empower every child to be effective global citizens.

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:

Personal development

1. Citizenship, Personal, Social and Health Education provision;

2. The school’s wider pastoral framework;

3. Growth mindset support – resilience development strategies;

4. Transition support;

5. Work to develop confidence e.g. role play, supporting peers;

6. Activities focused on building self-esteem;

7. Mental Health & well-being provision.

8. Our Global Curriculum offer

Social Development

1. Personal, Social and Health Education provision;

2. Volunteering and charitable work, courageous advocacy – eg. raising funds for Charities; links with the community, Starfish Malawi link

3. Pupil Voice – School Council, House Captains, Prefects, Eco Warriors, SSAT pupil accreditation (Y6)

4. Child and Family Support Worker support;

5. HSLW and Mental Health Leader Support

6. Pastoral support from all staff

7. Our Global Curriculum offer

Physical Development

1. The Physical Education curriculum;

2. Healthy Eating committee development and catering provision;

3. Anti-bullying, behaviour and safeguarding policies and strategies

4. The Health Education dimension of the Jigsaw PSHE programme, including strands on drugs, smoking and alcohol;

5. The extra-curricular clubs related to sports and well-being;

6. The celebration of sporting achievement including personal fitness and competitive sport;

7. Activity-based residential visits.

Spiritual Development

1. The Religious Education Curriculum;

2. Links with St Mary’s Church and the local community

3. Our collective acts of reflection;

4. Support for the expression of individual faiths;

5. Inter-faith and faith-specific activities and speakers;

6. Visits to religious buildings and centres;

7. Our Global Curriculum offer

Moral Development

1. The Religious Education Curriculum;

2. The school’s Behaviour policy;

3. Contributions to local, national and international charitable projects.

4. Our Global Curriculum offer

Cultural Development

1. Citizenship education through PSHE;

2. Arts education including Music and Drama;

3. Access to the languages and cultures of other countries through the Geography curriculum and extra-curricular activities

4. Promotion of racial equality and community cohesion through the school’s ethos, informing all policy and practice.

5. Our Global Curriculum offer

6. Extra-curricular clubs

At St Marys, we are committed to the broadest educational offering, and that can mean looking beyond the National Curriculum. We offer an enrichment programme that draws upon a wide range of adult skills and is offered through school trips, visiting specialists and themed days and weeks as well as a range of extra-curricular clubs. Trips are directly linked to our history and geography work with residential visits taking place for children in Year 5 and Year 6. The children take part in a variety of workshops throughout the academic year which again link to the curriculum, as well as local events and opportunities in school. (i.e. STEM, helicopter landing and student engineers to work our pupils) Each term we share dance, singing and drama assemblies which are greatly appreciated by all.

Enrichment Opportunities
Class	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Reception	Pied Piper Production Forest School Workshop      Millers Ark at Village Nursery	Painshill Park Trip	Blue Reef Trip
Year 1		Rural Life Trip	Seaside Workshop
Year 2	Great Fire of London Workshop	Marwell Zoo Trip Hatching of Chicks	Arundel Castle Trip
Year 3	Butser Farm Trip	Titanic Workshop  Seacity Trip                        Food Education Workshop	Kew Gardens Trip Roman Workshop Feet First Walking Training
Year 4	Ufton Court Trip                Starfish Malawi Workshop	Eqyptian Workshop Swimming Lessons Bikeability	Henley Fort Trip Chichester Harbour Trip
Year 5	I Believe in Unicorns Theatre Production at Cranleigh Prep  Mary Rose Exhibition	Young Voices            Planetarium Trip	Drama Workshop
Year 6	World War I Workshop	Ancient Greece Workshop	Bikeability  Chidham Residential
Whole School	Mindfulness Workshop Rocksteady Concert Visit from Father Christmas Pause Day Advent	Tangled Feet Production Book Fair  M&M Production Bedtime Stories Book Character Dress Up Day Rocksteady Concert            School Disco  Pause Day Lent	Sports Day Rocksteady concert Helicopter/STEM Visit