Cultural Capital & British Values

What is Cultural Capital?

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.

Cultural Capital intertwines very well with our school’s statement, “The child grew and became strong in body, mind and spirit.”

Policy Rationale

At St. Peter’s, we recognise that for children to aspire 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.

The school recognises 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

Summary of the key areas of coverage for each area of Cultural Capital Development:

Personal development

  1. Citizenship, Personal, Social and Health Education provision;
  2. The school’s wider pastoral framework;
  3. Growth mindset support – resilience development strategies;
  4. Transition support;
  5. Work to develop confidence e.g. role play, supporting peers;
  6. Activities focused on building self-esteem;
  7. Mental Health & well-being provision.
  8. Jigsaw scheme;
  9. Nurture group;
  10. Nurture mentors.

Social Development

  1. Personal, Social and Health Education provision;
  2. Volunteering and charitable work – eg. raising funds for NSPCC, cncer charities and many more which are all child initiated ; choir singing at Christmas events
  3. Pupil Voice –School Council, Eco-Council, Peer Mentors, Sports Council, reading ambassadors, buddies, Guardian Angels
  4. Provisions linked to the school’s UNICEF Rights Respecting.
  5. Pastoral support from all staff;
  6. Nurture group;
  7. Nurture mentors;
  8. Jigsaw scheme.

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 Jigsaw scheme programme, including strands on drugs, smoking and alcohol;
  5. The extra-curricular clubs related to sports and well-being;

British Values: Christian Values

As an Anglican School we actively promote, develop and nurture values, virtues and ethics that shape our pupils’ character and moral perspective. We consider British Values to be rooted in our Christian Values. As a school, we have four chosen Gospel Values – LOVE, HOPE, FAITH and TRUST. Exploration and understanding of our chosen values naturally leads to exploration of many other Christian Values and British Values.

As a school, it is our duty to promote the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of all our pupils and of our society; which is proudly, diverse, multi-cultural and multifaith. This policy statement outlines how we promote fundamental British Values at St. Peter’s C.E. Primary School: Democracy

ï‚· Children learn about democratic processes through our History curriculum including the role of the British Monarchy and its development over time.

ï‚· The children democratically elect peers to represent their views on our School Council and Eco Council Mutual Respect

ï‚· Children learn about mutual respect through our themed worships

ï‚· Corridor monitors reward each class with an award for setting the best example during our Celebration Worship

ï‚· Through our acts of Collective Worship and RE lessons children are taught to have mutual respect for others, regardless of their faith, culture and beliefs.

The Rule of Law

ï‚· At the start of each academic year classes set their ‘Class Charter’. 

ï‚· Children learn about the British justice system.

ï‚· There is a standardised ‘traffic light’ approach to behaviour and sanctions that is applied across the school. The system is flexible and places a high emphasis on the ability to redeem yourself.

ï‚· Members of staff are trained on ‘Restorative Justice’ techniques; these are used as guiding principle in dealing with incidents of misbehaviour Individual Liberty

ï‚· Through our curriculum and Worships children are taught about significant individuals who have fought for individual liberty and human rights

ï‚· Our children understand that their actions are governed by their choices

ï‚· We encourage ‘pupil voice’ through our School Council and Eco Council. Tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs

ï‚· Through our Worship and RE children are taught about those with different faiths and beliefs

ï‚· As an Anglican school we teach tolerance of others through our Christian values and life

Files to Download

British Values Statement British Values.pptx UK-British-Values-in-Jigsaw-by-Lesson.pdf

St Peters C of E Primary School, Birley St, Newton-le-Willows, WA12 9UR