Cultural Capital
What does cultural capital mean at St George's Church of England Academy?
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.
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 gives power. It helps children 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.
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."
At St George's Church of England Academy children benefit from a curriculum that builds on what they understand and know already. Through our Christian beliefs and values, our children's experiences revolve around the coherent cycle of learning from the past, living in the present and looking to the future. This means our children have a deep and connected knowledge and understanding of where they came from, who they are and what they might become. 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.
Enrichment Experiences
At St George's Church of England Academy, our curriculum is designed to instill high aspirations in all of our children and to encourage them to become resilient, life-long learners who embrace challenges and continue to grow. Our children will be inspired to follow whichever path they choose whilst being well-rounded, conscientious citizens of our community as well as understanding how they can be global citizens. Our Christian values, understanding of SMSC and British Values enrich and underpin our curriculum to ensure St George's children are prepared and equipped to succeed in their futures in an ever changing world.
Please find below an overview of our enrichment opportunities and provision map.
Sports
At St George's, we take part in a wide range of competitive and recreational sport. We are members of the Darlington Sports Partnership and participate in a variety of sporting events arranged with other schools throughout the year.
This ranges from KS2 festival of sports, where children are introduced to activities such as invasion games or athletic activities, to inter-school competitions in sports ranging from orienteering to rounders, athletics to basketball to name but a few.
In addition to this, we also compete annually at a variety of cross-country races, the Darlington schools swimming gala, Tees Valley and Darlington Schools football competitions and County School Games competitions.
In school, we hold an annual sports day which consists of athletic events for KS1 and KS2. Children are split into 4 house teams.
Residential Experiences
We believe that children should receive a full and balanced educational experience that allows them to experience a wide range of activities and environments. To support this we offer a residential visit to Robinwood for children in Years 5 and 6.
During this residential over 3 days and 2 nights our children experience a wide variety of indoor and outdoor pursuits led by fully qualified and experienced instructors. Here, at Robinwood, they can experience and challenge themselves, testing their physical and mental resilience. These include canoeing, rock climbing, raft building and orienteering, if the weather conditions allows.
The Robinwood trip is often the highlight of a child's time at St. George's, being something they recall fondly for years to come.
Clubs
We are proud to offer a wide range of extra-curricular clubs which are run by a variety of members of staff. Activities provided over the last few years range from history, football, gardening, singing, music, art, cricket, netball, tennis, drama, and dance clubs.
Clubs can be booked via Parent Pay, our online payment system. There is a small charge to help cover the cost of materials.
