Cultural Capital at Springwell Park

Cultural Capital in EYFS is all about celebrating and building on children’s early experiences and providing other new opportunities to be curious, explore, try new things, and experience awe and wonder.

At Springwell Park, we appreciate that Cultural Capital could mean a lack of life experiences, such as visiting a museum or an art gallery, or less concrete things, such as a lack of life skills, for example having an inability to share or struggling to apologise.

We acknowledge that each child's level of cultural capital is different. Some children start their school journey having a higher level of cultural capital and some start having a lower level. We work hard to ascertain a child’s level of cultural capital through our strong home links, home visits, and pupil premium surgeries. We then strive to ensure that, through our provision and the opportunities we provide our children, we level the playing field and provide each child invaluable experiences and opportunities. 

Please click the document below to view further information all about Cultural Capital within our Early Years.

Cultural Capital and Fundamental British Vales 

Within Springwell Park, we work hard to promote the Fundamental British Values. We have a whole school approach to this, but also standalone activities within each individual year group.

Through our promotion of the Fundamental British Values, not only are we increasing our children’s understanding, but also simultaneously increasing their cultural capital. At various points throughout the year, we have whole school assemblies on each of the values. Within class based activities, the children learn what it means to be democratic and the skill of listening to other people’s opinion; they learn all about rules and consequences and what a good choice is; they learn all about respecting themselves and other people, irrespective of background or belief; and they learn all about the importance of following their interests. Our approach to the promotion of the Fundamental British Values helps to increase our children’s life skills, and therefore their cultural capital.

Our PSHE Curriculum and Cultural Capital 

Our PSHE curriculum also contributes significantly to increasing our children’s Cultural Capital. The curriculum is delivered through bespoke and relevant themes – Healthy Mind, Caring Friendships, Online Safety, Keeping Safe, Healthy Relationships, and Healthy Body. Each theme has been carefully planned out with progression in mind. Through completing our PSHE sessions, themed days, and assemblies, our children develop further life skills and understanding and thereby increase their cultural capital.

We are unbelievably proud of our approach to Culture Capital at Springwell Park. We work really hard to ensure that we increase our children's culture capital, both through concrete experiences and life-skill opportunities. 

We pride ourselves on our approach to educational visits and workshops, where the school fully funds one experience each term in order to increase our children's life experiences. We also have various visitors to come into our setting to enhance 

Raising our children's Cultural Capital is a priority to us at Springwell Park throughout our Early Years setting. 

• Celebrations and Cultural Events - We work hard to mark national celebrations that occur throughout the year in order to raise our children's understanding and associated vocabulary - an example of this from this year was The King's Coronation. We also work hard to celebrate cultural events, specifically those relevant to our cohort. Examples of this include our work surrounding Diwali (Diwali Stay and Play/Diwali Craft Session) and our Christmas activities (Nativity/Christmas Singalong/Christmas Stay and Play). 

• Outings and Visitors - Our school fully funds our children having three educational visitors and/or workshops per year, one per term. These trips are linked to the children's curriculum and interests. Examples of experiences the children have had this year include a trip to Marin Mere, a trip to the farm, an 'under the sea' workshop, visit from an athlete, musical lessons from a musician, and visits from all of the emergency services. 

• Themed Days and Special Activities - We have a number of themed days and special activities throughout the year. Some of these are whole school events, such as World Book Day, Sports Day, and Internet Safety Day. Examples of Early Years events are the nursery graduation, Judo, Forest School, and Balance Bikes. 

• Adult Led Activities and Continuous Provision Enhancements -  We pride ourselves on our highly trained, competent and passionate staff in our EYFS setting. Each topic is planned on our Medium-Term Plans, including the adult-led opportunities to enhance the curriculum focus and children’s understanding. Our continuous provision areas have been planned with the topic in mind, with children’s interests embedded throughout.

• Quality Texts / Poetry / Nursery Rhymes - At Springwell Park, we pride ourselves on how important high-quality texts are in our daily school life. Our children encounter high quality texts daily within their classroom library. Each class library is well stocked with appealing literature and the children are read to daily. In addition to this, the children are able to access our school library and also take home a reading for pleasure text of their choosing daily. Our reception children have comprehension sessions in small adult led groups with their teacher – this is where they complete stimulating activities to enhance the children’s understanding of texts, including vocabulary. Our children also learn familiar stories and rhymes through our poetry spine.

• Other - Increasing our children’s cultural capital is within our very nature – it is within our daily practice and everything we do. We strive to make our children the best possible version of themselves and make them ready for, not only year 1, but also the life beyond Springwell. Here are some examples of other things we do to increase our children’s cultural capital - News time for children to share their experiences, children’s interests embedded throughout the year, home learning and home communication, and experiencing the snow.