What is ‘Cultural Capital’?

Cultural capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success. It is about giving children the best possible start to their education.  

The original phrase came from the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in the 1970s, believing the more ‘capital’ you had, the more powerful your position was within society. This concept has continued to develop and research now shows that when a child’s cultures are valued, both their experience of learning and their progress can benefit (Husain et al., 2018, p. 4 and Gazzard, E. 2018 in Chalmers, H. and Crisfield, E. 2019).

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a child can draw upon to be successful in their education, society and the world of work. It helps children achieve goals and become successful no matter their starting point.

Cultural Capital at Thurcroft Junior Academy

At Thurcroft Junior Academy, pupils benefit from a creative and ambitious curriculum that builds on what they understand and know already. We believe the exposure to valuable, long-life experiences is important to their ongoing successes.

We recognise that for our pupils 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. We do this in many ways, for example, through our curriculum, extra-curricular activities, workshops, visits, enrichment days and community links.

Author visit 

We had the pleasure of welcoming poet, Tony Peek, into school. He delivered a fantastic assembly and an engaging workshop to all pupils in school. Within their workshops pupils had the chance to create their own poems. 

Cinderella Pantomime 

In November, every very pupil had the opportunity to attend the pantomime, Cinderella, at Rotherham Civic Theatre. Pupils had an amazing time laughing, singing and dancing. A pupil in Y5 said, "This is the best trip I have ever been on."  

Mayor of Rotherham visit

Y4 have been reading the 'What a waste' book and completing English work around it. We were lucky enough to have a very special visit from The Mayor of Rotherham, where children got the chance to ask questions all about what Rotherham does to protect our local area and environment. 

Holocaust Centre Visit 

Year 6 visited the Holocaust Centre as a part of their WW2 topic. This trip offered the opportunity for children to meet a real life survivor from the holocaust and ask him questions. We took a look at Leo's journey  and then at the end of the day the children got the opportunity to lay a stone in memory of all of the children's lives who were lost during this sad time. All of the children were respectful and represented our academy well. Well done Y6!

 

Science Week

To celebrate science week, we had a real planetarium in school and children loved learning about space and the solar system around us!

 Chinese New Year

To celebrate Chinese new year, everybody in school were able to take part in traditional celebrations and dancing using a fantastic themed dragon!