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 Riddings Infant and Nursery School we continually evaluate the variety of opportunities we provide for our children, to ensure that they are diverse, interesting and relevant to both the curriculum and the children’s lives. In the computing curriculum, cultural capital relates to the understanding of digital technologies and their role in society, as well as the ability to use them effectively. This is explored in a variety of ways:
- Throughout Early Years there are opportunities for children to become more culturally aware using the immediate environment of home, school and local area. . Children will be able to explore technology in a safe and often child-led way developing a familiarity with equipment and vocabulary allowing them to have a strong start in Key Stage 1 computing and all that it demands. Computing in EYFS is centred around play-based, unplugged activities that focus on building pupils’ listening skills, curiosity, creativity and problem solving. Pupils will have opportunities to take photographs with a camera or tablet, play games on the interactive whiteboard or on iPads, use a programmable toy, watch video clips and listen to music.
- Throughout Key Stage 1 there are opportunities for pupils to identify technology and how its responsible use can help and improve our world in school and beyond. Through creating media, our pupils have opportunities to digitally paint, write, capture and change digital photographs and create musical compositions. Pupils will also be supported in developing logical reasoning through practical problem solving and debugging opportunities both when using programmable toys and in other areas of the curriculum such as working out how to make a model move in DT or working out the steps to create the right colour when mixing paint.
- Across school pupils computing cultural capital is enhanced by our use of the Project Evolve Online Safety Curriculum, regular practical workshops linked to Safer Internet Day, opportunities to explore and use a range of devices and apps within their continuous provision, a computing after school club and regular meetings of the Safer Internet Squad.