Cultural Capital

Cultural Capital

Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development

The Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development of pupils is embedded throughout all lessons and every aspect of school life. It is reflected in the School’s three core values of Respect, Responsibility and Resilience.

 What is Cultural Capital and what does it look like at Lacey Green?

• 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 child will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.
• Cultural capital promotes social mobility and success.
• Cultural capital gives a child power. It helps them 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 Lacey Green Primary Academy, we recognise that for children to “aspire to achieve” 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.

We recognise that there are six key areas of development that are interrelated and cumulatively contribute to the sum of a child’s cultural capital:

1. Personal Development
2. Social Development, including political and current affairs awareness
3. Physical Development
4. Spiritual Development
5. Moral Development
6. Cultural development

Here  is a summary of the key areas of coverage for each area of Cultural Capital Development at Lacey Green:

Personal development

1. Citizenship, Personal, Social and Health Education provision
2. The school’s wider pastoral framework
3. Growth mind-set support – resilience development strategies
4. Transition support
5. Work to develop confidence e.g. role play, supporting peers, performances
6. Activities focused on building self-esteem
7. Mental Health & well-being provision

Social Development

1. Personal, Social and Health Education provision
2. Volunteering and charitable work – eg. raising funds for NSPCC; choir singing at Christmas for elderly. Steel Drum performances
3. Pupil Voice –School Parliament, Head Boy/Girl, Prefects, Sports Captains, House Captains
4. Pastoral and home/school liaison designated teacher
5. Pastoral support from all staff

Physical Development

1. The Physical Education curriculum
2. Healthy Eating policies and catering provision
3. Anti-bullying and safeguarding policies and strategies
4. The Health Education dimension of the 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. Including PGL (Y6), Kingswood (Y2) and Robinwood (Y4)
8. Design and Technology units related to food preparation and nutrition

Spiritual Development

1. The Religious Education Curriculum
2. Our collective acts of reflection
3. Support for the expression of individual faiths
4. Inter-faith and faith-specific activities and speakers
5. Visits to religious buildings and centres

Moral Development

1. The Religious Education Curriculum
2. The school’s Behaviour policy
3. Contributions to local, national and international charitable projects

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

Each curriculum area makes its own contribution to children’s cultural capital development and supports SMSC across the school.