Wider Curriculum Opportunities & Cultural Capital
Our curriculum extends beyond the National Curriculum and includes a wide range of enriching experiences and opportunities both within and beyond the school day. This includes a programme of after-school clubs, that support the core curriculum offer, as well as those which develop specialist skills, such as French, pottery and embroidery, whilst also extending the range of children’s experiences (Cultural Capital). A primary focus of our curriculum is to raise aspirations, engender a sense of personal pride in achievement, and provide a purpose and relevance for learning.
The school takes pride in providing a highly inclusive environment, where learners demonstrate high levels of enjoyment in their education and make very good progress across the curriculum. Children at all levels are helped to achieve their potential. Those who are most able are challenged and supported through being offered tasks which provide opportunities for greater depth and those who can struggle are encouraged and given targeted support to embed skills, to develop at their own pace or simply to learn in a style that best suits their individual needs.
In addition to our exciting and stimulating cross-curricular themes, we also provide further opportunities to enhance children’s learning wherever possible.
Cultural Capital
What does Cultural Capital mean at Cockfield Primary School?
Cultural capital is the gathering 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. 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.
Cultural capital gives a child power. It helps them achieve goals, become successful 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.
What does Cultural Capital look like in education?
Cultural capital, when used in relation to education, 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.
What does Cultural Capital look like at Cockfield?
Every child and family who joins our school 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. Research shows that when children and families’ cultures are valued, both the child’s experience of learning and progress can benefit. At Cockfield everyone is valued and welcome.
We have devised a bespoke curriculum for our children, which exposes them to skills and knowledge in our local context which they can transfer to more abstract areas. We have ensured that our teaching is language rich, with vocabulary taught discretely and also exposing children to subject specific vocabulary, through their knowledge organisers.
Children are exposed to a wide range of books, either through our text-led curriculum, reading sessions or the plethora of reading activities we run through school such as: library visits, or recommended reading books in each year group. Reading is seen as a high priority and we ensure that children are exposed to a wide range of diverse books that they might not encounter away from school.
Our curriculum has been carefully designed so that we expose our children to experiences they normally wouldn’t have. For example, in KS2 Geography, we compare local cities with those around the world. By doing this, we have the opportunity to expose our children to the geography of Durham city, whilst also learning about other cities around the world. We organise a number of trips and field study visits linked to our curriculum.
Children also get the opportunity to go on residential visits in Class 4, where they are exposed to the ‘great outdoors.’ In music, we employ a specialist to teach Y3/4 children to play musical instruments. Children then perform to families over the year. Our children also have the opportunity to learn flute or clarinet in school. Our EYFS children are exposed to several activities linked through their well-designed curriculum.
All children have access to a variety of after school clubs, that enhance cultural capital. Sports clubs, cookery, arts and crafts, animation and around the world clubs have all been extremely popular. We work with parents and children, so they have a voice in what clubs they feel are most beneficial to them.
Our main vision for our children is for our children to be good people who go on to do great things. We want them to become life-long learners and global citizens that aspire to achieve great accomplishments in their life by having a desire and belief in their ability. Gradually widening children’s experiences as they progress through school is an important step in providing rich and engaging learning across the curriculum.
We plan carefully for children to have progressively richer experiences in nursery and beyond. These include trips to the local park, shops and visits to places of worship, museums, sports and music venues just to name a few.
Policy Rationale
At Cockfield Primary School, we recognise that for students 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.
There are six key areas of development that form a golden thread within our school
- Personal Development
- Social Development, including political and current affairs awareness
- Physical Development
- Spiritual Development
- Moral Development
- Cultural development
Personal Development
Pupil Task Force
Investing in Children
School Leadership Team
School Values
Assemblies
Mental Health and Wellbeing Provision
Mental Health Lead
Zones of Regulation
Citizenship, Personal, Social and Health Education
Activities focused on building resilience and self-esteem
Educate & Celebrate (Rainbow Respect Team)
Careers & Aspirations – visitors, virtual and in person
Curriculum
Social Development, including political and current affairs awareness
Student voice groups – Pupil Task Force, Educate & Celebrate, Rainbow Respect Team
Citizenship, Personal, Social and Health Education
Role of the Mental health Lead
Community links with charities Assemblies
Curriculum
Ethos of care
Active 30 – healthy lifestyles
Physical Development
Healthy eating policies
Physical Education curriculum
Anti- bullying and safeguarding policies
Extra- curricular programme related to sports and well-being
Health Education dimension of the PSHE programme, including strands on drugs, smoking and alcohol;
Active learning – curriculum intent
Celebration of sporting achievements including personal and competitive
Playtime offer
Promotion of walking or cycling to and from school
Curriculum
School grounds
Forest School
Spiritual Development
Religious Education
Collective Worship – Reverend Brian
Our collective acts of reflection
Support for the expression of individual faiths
Visits to religious buildings and centres
Assemblies
Curriculum Offer
Moral Development
Class Charters
Behaviour policy
Contributions to local, national and International charitable projects.
Pupil Task Force
Curriculum Offer
Cultural Development
Curriculum Offer
Access to the languages and cultures of other countries through the curriculum, trips and visits
Promotion of racial equality and community cohesion through the school’s ethos
Citizenship Education through PSHE
Access to the Arts – ArtsMark Gold
Below are examples of the opportunities and experiences we offer children at Cockfield Primary School . . .
After school clubs
After school clubs are planned according to the needs of our children, we regularly consult our children on what clubs they would like us to run. Our After-School Clubs and Wraparound Care ran all the way through the lockdowns during COVID19 as we know how valuable they are to our children. As a school, we will reflect on our offer each half term and adapt the clubs offered to suit the needs of our children.
Day of the week | Club |
Monday | Netball, Arts & Crafts |
Tuesday | Football, Board Games |
Wednesday | Animation, Indoor & Outdoor Fun |
Thursday | Cookery, Around the World |
Friday | Film Club |
Examples of trips and visits
Raby Castle
Durham Cathedral
Local travellers’ site
Bowes Museum
Gurdwara
Saltburn by the Sea
Life Science Centre
Examples of people who we have chosen to study in our curriculum
Mary Seacole Neil Armstrong Pablo Picasso
Banksy Tommy Armstrong Grayson Perry
Sir Isaac Newton Charles Darwin Issa Watanabe
Alan Turing Albert Einstein Shaun Tan
Harvey Milk Greta Thunberg Justin Richardson
Marie Curie Orla Kieley Rosa Parks
David Attenborough Natasha Chomko Martin Luther King
Each curriculum area makes its own contribution to children’s cultural capital development and supports SMSC across the school.
Outdoor Learning
As a school we value the benefits of outdoor learning. Children are stimulated by the outdoors where they can undertake a range of practical activities to support and enhance learning across the curriculum. Learning outside the curriculum is an essential thread of our curriculum intent.
Opportunities are built into the curriculum for children to continue learning beyond the classroom including undertaking fieldwork and enquiry based-work in the local area.
Please click the picture to see a video of our outdoor learning provision
(30) OutdoorPlay and Learning at Cockfield – YouTube
Homework
Homework can make an important contribution to a child’s progress at school. As well as reinforcing learning in the classroom, homework helps children to develop the skills and attitudes they will need for successful independent lifelong learning.
Homework is set in-line with the school’s policy, with tasks planned to appropriately challenge all pupils. In addition to the Homework set children are expected to practise weekly spellings, timetables and to read regularly at home.
Assemblies
A rounded programme of daily assemblies helps to promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and provide clear guidance on what is right and what is wrong. Once a week, assemblies are led by Mrs Costello and class teachers deliver assemblies on a given theme throughout the week.
We also have a celebration assembly once a week in which the whole school community come together to celebrate the achievements that week.
Visitors into School
Visitors have a valuable role to play and can contribute to many aspects of the life and work of the school. They deliver talks, workshops and full day activities across a wide range of subjects, giving pupils access to outside experiences and expertise. Visitors provide a link with the wider community – children have the opportunity to work alongside artists, musicians, authors, health professions and others.
Opportunities to Volunteer or Give Service
Giving service is an activity that everyone can get involved in and benefit from. At Cockfield Primary we promote and encourage pupils’ active citizenship and positive contribution to the school and wider community. We offer lots of opportunities for pupils to take on new responsibilities and be involved in successfully supporting the life and work of the school. These include our Pupil Leadership Team, Pupil Task Force and Rainbow Respect Team. Older pupils can also apply and for positions such as Playground Leaders and Reading Buddies, and within classes children can volunteer to take on various responsibilities.
Pupils tell us that they enjoy the opportunity to volunteer to help make their school an even better place to be and rising to the challenge that additional responsibility brings.