Shaw-cum-Donnington C.E. Primary

What does Cultural Capital & SMSC mean at Shaw-cum-Donnington Primary School?

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.

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 helps children achieve goals, become successful and give children the desire to aspire and achieve social mobility whatever their starting point.  At Shaw-cum-Donnington Primary School, children benefit from a broad curriculum that builds on what they understand and know already. We believe that exposure, not only to culture but also to situations in which the children might not have previous experiences of, is of paramount importance to their ongoing successes.  Through our school values, we build respect, resilience, positive relationships, tolerance for others and a connection to something bigger than ourselves.

Gradually widening children’s experiences as they progress through school is an important step in providing rich and engaging learning across the curriculum. We enrich our children with a wide variety of experiences.  These include trips to the local park, shops and visits to places of worship, museums, sports and music venues just to name a few.

Ofsted define cultural capital as…

“As part of making the judgement about the quality of education, inspectors will consider the extent to which schools are equipping pupils with the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life.

Our understanding of ‘knowledge and cultural capital’ is derived from the following wording in the national curriculum: ‘It is 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.’ “