What does Cultural Capital mean at Eastnor Parochial Primary School?

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

Valuing all aspects of our unique families helps us to close gaps and support equality of opportunity. 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.

At Eastnor we believe Cultural Capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a child can draw upon to demonstrate their competence and understanding of the world. The more we equip children the more successful in society, their career and the world of work.

The Eastnor curriculum is broad, rich and inspiring, engendering an appreciation of human creativity and achievement. Our curriculum encourages children to ask ‘big’ questions and introduces them to the best that has been thought and said.

Exposure is paramount to children's ongoing successes and understanding. A wide range of experiences in our curriculum builds cultural capital. Here are just a few:

• Appreciation and love of music through creating, playing instruments, and giving meaningful performances, such as singing at our local Care Home and Young Voices concerts
• Acquiring a language through specialist teacher-led French lessons
• Celebrating different cultures and faiths and thinking about local and global communities with our link to the The Bana Besu Feeding Project
• Understanding how history has shaped our future
• Building our understanding of supporting others and championing advocacy
• Learning about our environment and comparing it to others - growing vegetables and fruit to eat and cook
• Being informed and feeling empowered in our many councils
• Watching performance and performing for audiences
• Working with artists, dancers and musicians
• Speaking confidently to visitors and asking lots of questions
• Feeling fit, healthy and positive about future aspirations
• Knowing how to keep ourselves safe