‘I have come in order that you have life, life in all its fullness.’ John 10:10
Our school vision underpins all aspects of the curriculum, including the ethos and culture of our school and the experiences we provide our children with above and beyond the national curriculum. We want our children to enjoy life in all its fullness, feeling confident and able to seize all opportunities. As part of this, we want to enhance their cultural capital.
We define cultural capital as the knowledge needed to fully appreciate and participate in all aspects of life.
Cultural capital, promotes the idea that schools should support the modern definition of what ‘cultural capital’ means. That is an individual who is knowledgeable about a wide range of culture, is comfortable discussing its value and merits, and has been given a vast array of experiences and access to skill development.
Bourdieu identified three sources of cultural capital – objective, embodied and institutionalised. In Farncombe this comprises:
Embodied: language, mannerisms, preferences;
Institutionalised: education credentials, high expectations and achievement .
We aim to realise cultural capital through all aspects of the curriculum – exposing students to a large variety of subject areas and arts; promoting character-building qualities that lead to creating well-rounded, global citizens, and of course the more typical expectation of education, to provide young people with recognised and meaningful qualifications that will open up doors to paths in later life.
A practical example of this is the weekly storytimes held for each year group. All children are exposed to classic literature (Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Jill Tomlinson, Anne Fine and Dick King-Smith) and watch recorded classical music, making such experiences and vocabulary a normative part of their week.
Farncombe Church of England Infant School 