Sunny Bank Primary School

Cultural Capital

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. (Husain et al, 2018, p.4 and Gazzard, E. 2018 in Chalmers, H. and Crisfield, E. 2019)

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 define cultural capital as:

... 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 Sunny Bank Primary School, pupils 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 which pupils may not have previous experience of, is of paramount important to their ongoing successes. All pupils are exposed to high-quality texts and assemblies which embed cultural capital as a focus point. In addition to this, all pupils at Sunny Bank will complete ’20 things to do before leaving Sunny Bank’ – see below.