Cultural Capital

Cultural Capital

 

What is Cultural Capital?

 

‘.. 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.’ Ofsted

 

Cultural capital is the store of knowledge, skills and behaviours that someone can draw upon and which shows their cultural awareness, knowledge and expertise. It is one of the key ingredients a person will use to be successful in society, their career and the world of work.

To build someone's cultural capital, they need a wide variety of experiences so that they know about details related to their own culture and can talk about their values and merits, coming to their own conclusions, and expressing opinions and preferences fed by this store of knowledge, skills and behaviours.

By seeing these details used in different ways (contexts), a person becomes able to use their knowledge, skills and behaviours independently in situations they haven't encountered before.

 

What do we mean by 'culture'?

 

We recognise that there are six distinctive areas of development that are interrelated and contribute to building our student cultural capital.  These are:

• Diversity
• Communication, Language and Literacy
• Environment and Community
• Knowledge and Skills/Careers and Aspirations
• Outdoor Opportunities/Visits/Experiences
• Well-Being