Cultural Capital

At Oakengates Nursery, we believe every child deserves opportunities that inspire curiosity, confidence, and a love of learning.

Cultural capital is the knowledge, behaviours, and skills that children gain over time through a wide range of experiences. These build their cultural awareness, understanding, and competence, helping them succeed in society, education, and later in the world of work.

Cultural capital empowers children. It helps them set goals, achieve success, and aspire to a brighter future – regardless of their background. It is not about wealth, but about giving children the tools, experiences, and confidence to achieve social mobility and fulfil their potential.

Our understanding of “knowledge and cultural capital” comes from 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.”

How we build cultural capital at Oakengates Nursery

At Oakengates Nursery, we believe that cultural capital begins in the earliest years through rich, meaningful experiences that help children make sense of the world around them. Our curriculum is carefully designed to build on what children already know, while gently broadening their experiences, language and understanding.

We create a nurturing environment where curiosity is encouraged, learning is active, and children feel confident to explore, question and try new things.

🌍 Bringing the World Into Our Nursery

We thoughtfully plan experiences that widen children’s understanding of the world in age-appropriate and engaging ways, including:

Visitors and workshops, such as Bhangra dancing, music and movement experiences.
Hands-on encounters like Farm on Wheels, giving children the chance to meet animals and learn about care and responsibility.
Exploring life cycles through real experiences, including eggs hatching into ducklings and observing caterpillars transforming into butterflies.

🛠️ Hands-On Experiences

We value practical experiences that build confidence, independence and curiosity:

Woodwork and tool exploration, following research and professional development from Pete Moorhouse carefully supported by adults, helping children develop coordination, problem-solving skills and perseverance.
Gardening and growing, where children plant seeds, care for plants and observe changes over time, developing responsibility and respect for the natural world.
Opportunities to design, build and create using natural and open-ended materials.
Cooking, making, fixing and exploring everyday objects to develop real-world understanding.

🗣️ Communication, Language and Vocabulary

Developing strong communication and language skills is at the heart of everything we do:

Adults model rich, expressive language during play, routines and shared experiences.
New vocabulary is introduced and revisited through real-life experiences, stories, songs and exploration.
Children are encouraged to talk about what they see, feel and do, helping them make connections and deepen understanding.
Songs, rhymes and stories are used daily to support listening, attention and early communication skills.

🎶 Music, Arts and Creativity

Children are exposed to a broad range of high-quality musical and creative experiences:

Weekly progressive early years music sessions delivered by Music Minors, carefully planned to build skills over time.
Exploring rhythm, pitch, tempo and movement through singing, instruments and music-making.
Listening to and responding to a range of music, including world music, classical and modern styles.

Our early years art curriculum is informed by research from The Language of Art (Ann Pelo) , which emphasises art as a powerful form of communication. Children are encouraged to explore materials freely, revisit ideas and express thoughts, feelings and experiences through mark-making, drawing, painting and sculpture. Adults support this by modelling artistic language, introducing descriptive vocabulary and valuing the creative process as much as the finished piece.

🤝 Understanding Others and the World

We help children develop respect, curiosity and a sense of belonging:

Learning about different cultures, traditions and celebrations throughout the year.
Exploring the natural world, communities and familiar life experiences.
Supporting children to develop kindness, empathy and confidence in social situations.

Through these carefully planned experiences, we ensure that every child builds strong foundations for future learning — developing curiosity, confidence and a growing understanding of the world as they achieve, belong and thrive.