According to the aims of the national curriculum, cultural capital “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 GBPS we recognise the importance of cultural capital in education and we ensure our children are exposed to it through all aspects of our broad, balanced curriculum. We do this through a large variety of subject areas and arts, in turn promoting character-building qualities that lead to creating well-rounded, global citizens, and of course to provide them with recognised and meaningful qualifications that will open up doors to paths in later life. We ensure that all barriers are removed and strive to promote equality for all.

One of our core school values is ‘aspire’ so we endeavour to open our children's eyes to a variety of different experiences throughout their time here at GBP, including theatre visits and working with actors. We recognise the importance of first-hand experiences and real-life contexts when learning. According to the Early Years Alliance, there is “no need to over-think cultural capital – it is the exciting and stimulating activities that you do with children every day”. At the heart of every year group’s curriculum are a range of active and experience-rich activities which are underpinned by our concepts and values. Our curriculum offer taps into many of the social, moral, spiritual and cultural elements that help a child be prepared for the next step in their lives – in our case that’s being secondary ready.

This is achieved in a multitude of ways, including:

• Providing plenty of opportunities to explore new activities, through lunchtime and after-school clubs such as gardening, cooking and sports
• Teaching children about a wide variety of arts including literature and music
• Prioritising school trips, residentials and visitors to enhance our provision and provide the children with aspirational examples
• Providing plenty of opportunities for questioning, curiosity and creativity.
• Residentials, school trips, museum and gallery visits, visitors, actors
• Use of technology to help children learn e.g. tablets and laptops (we are now fortunate enough to have a class set of laptops and i-pads for each phase)
• Peripatetic music lessons
• Providing life skills e.g Bikeability, First Aid training.

Some of our ‘cultural capital highlights’ for each year group are shared below:

• EYFS - Hillier visit, walk to Old Basing, Panto, Scooter training
• Year 1 - Outdoor Week
• Year 2 - Treehouse theatre, Outdoor Week (including Road Safety)
• Year 3 - Treehouse theatre and Listen2Me (academic year-long Music programme provided by Hampshire Music specialist)
• Year 4 - Treehouse theatre
• Year 5 - Swimming lessons, Treehouse theatre
• Year 6 – Hampton Court Palace trip, historical tour of Basingstoke, Willis Museum, Bikeabilty, Avon Tyrrell residential

VI - VIP club, trips and visits, latest technology, links with charities, sports coaches in school