16th May 2025
HEADLINES
By James Saunders
CULTURAL CAPITAL As I have said in the past, I believe that a wellrounded education must include opportunities to develop cultural and social capital - it’s no accident that these two things are really important to us. Coming up later this term we have our enrichment week. It is a time when all our teachers get the opportunity to see another side of learners by accompanying them on a trip. “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 the theme of enrichment. I often mention that the real impact of the pandemic in schools and wider society was the decimation of cultural and social capital building experiences. The aim of our upcoming enrichment programme is to create opportunities for our learners to develop their cultural and social capital and enhance their sense of belonging to our community. 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 in their personal development and 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 ‘old boys networks’. I firmly believe that everyone should be entitled to those same opportunities. We have already been able to run so many successful enrichment activities this year such as: C7 Mersea Day; C11 Careers Fair; C10 Warship Visit; Thorpe Park Trip; BBC Bitesize presentation; C7 Disco; Twickenham Rugby Trip; Macbeth Trip; Democracy Day; Winter Concert; Community Christmas Lunch; Disneyland Trip; Ski Trip; Apprenticeship Fair; C7 Smashed Theatre; Dance Show; Faraday Challenge; World Book Day; C8 Creative Careers at the Mercury Theatre; C11 London Scavenger Hunt; and this week the C10 Geography Field studies trip. All of these activities have taken a lot of extra discretionary effort on the part of our amazing staff. For that, please join me in thanking them all. Looking ahead we still have a packed out calendar of amazing enrichment opportunities taking place over the rest of year. I am personally looking forward to joining C7 in Caythorpe in the summer. The last half of the term learners will have the opportunity to take part in the following: C10 Mock Interviews; Grange Barn Drama Play; London Musical Theatre Orchestra Workshop; Belgium Trip; C10 Colchester Institute Taster; Braintree Dance Festival; Minecraft Trip; District Athletics; C9 DofE Expedition; C10 Work Experience; C6 Intake Days; Summer Concert; Post16 Evening; German Exchange Visit; Sports Day; C7 Residential to Caythorpe; Berlin Trip; Paris Trip; C8 and C9 enrichment week; Emmanuel College Visit; Pride Fete; and finally, we end the year with our 60 Years of Honywood sponsored community walk. Whilst for our outgoing C11s the focus has been