14th February 2025
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
ARTS, CULTURE AND ENRICHMENT: BUILDING SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CAPITAL Off the back of another successful Dance Show on Monday I would like to highlight the importance of providing young people with enrichment opportunities to complement their academic programmes. The beaming smiles from our learners at the end of this week’s show demonstrated the power of focusing on both success and happiness. I had the privilege of watching some of the rehearsals on Monday which left me feeling rather inspired. The work ethic and determination of the performers to perfect their routines was incredible. As I have said in the past I believe that a well rounded education must include opportunities to develop Cultural and Social Capital. Both these things were in abundance on Monday night at the Dance Show. I would like to thank those of you that attended. “Each child has a spark inside him or her. It is the responsibility of the people and institutions around each child to find what would ignite that spark” Howard Gardner. The words of Howard Gardner chime very well with this week’s theme: arts, culture and enrichment. The aim of our enrichment programme is to create opportunities for our learners to develop their Cultural and Social Capital within and beyond the classroom. I recently read that Cultural Capital can be likened to a kind of currency or credit score. If you have a good credit score you can access more things. Our approach to the development of Cultural Capital is just like this. We believe that developing this in our learners will place them at an advantage in the future and will support them to access their learning on a deeper level.
I have often thought that the only difference between state and private schools is the advantage they provide regarding the development of Cultural and Social Capital - the connections, the opportunities and the networks. I firmly believe that everyone should be entitled to those same opportunities, not just the advantaged in society. We have already been able to run a range of successful enrichment activities this year such as: C7 Activity day at Mersea; Portsmouth Warship Trip; Thorpe Park Trip; C11 Careers Fair; Geography Field Studies; Democracy Day; Rugby at Twickenham; BBC bitesize Careers insight; NHS visit; Anglia Ruskin University STEM lecture; SMASHed performance and Dance trips. This week C9 learners have also been in Disneyland for a Media, Graphics and Business trip and today our Skiers departed for the slopes of Austria with a gruelling coach ride through the night ahead of them. I am now pleased to share some of the activities that will be taking place across all cohorts over the rest of the academic year. It is still going to be a busy one.