Culture Capital

Every child and family who joins the Birkdale family will have their own knowledge and experiences that will link to their culture and wider family.

Cultural capital is the accumulation of knowledge, behaviours, and skills that a child can draw upon and which demonstrates their cultural awareness, knowledge and competence. It is one of the key ingredients a pupil will draw upon to be successful in society, their career and the world of work. Gradually widening children’s experiences as they progress through school is an important step in providing rich and engaging learning across the curriculum. We plan carefully for children to have progressively richer experiences throughout their school life at Birkdale Primary.

In addition to our exciting and stimulating cross-curricular themes, we also provide further opportunities to enhance children’s learning wherever possible. We regularly update our year group curriculum overviews to show them. These include:

Whole School Theme Days/Weeks

Throughout the year, themed days/weeks are woven into the curriculum to extend the breadth and balance of opportunities we offer our pupils. Some of these include Mental Health Week, Music Day, Arts Week, DT Week, Diversity Week, World Book Day, Diwali Day, Arctic Day, Online Safety Day, Big Breaktimes and Spanish Day as examples.

Educational Visits and Residentials

School trips and visits are an integral part of the education of children at Birkdale Primary School. They enable children to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the curriculum whilst enriching their range of experiences.  Trips include class visits aimed at bringing learning alive and providing first-hand experience.

Visitors to schools and online specialist workshops

Visitors have a valuable role to play and can contribute to many aspects of the life and work of the school. They deliver talks, workshops and full-day activities across a wide range of subjects, giving pupils access to outside experiences and expertise. Visitors provide a link with the wider community – children have the opportunity to work alongside artists, musicians, authors, health professionals and others. 

After-school Clubs

As a school, we offer pupils opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities after school. At any time, a wide range of clubs is on offer – our programmes of clubs and activities available are revised termly depending on the time of year and other commitments children may have. Please have a look at our timetable in the parents section of our website for the activities offered each term.

Opportunities to Volunteer

Volunteering is an activity that everyone can get involved in and benefit from. At Birkdale Primary, we promote and encourage pupils’ active citizenship and positive contribution to the school and wider community. We offer lots of opportunities for pupils to take on new responsibilities and be involved in successfully supporting the life and work of the school. These include elected representatives on our School Council, Well-being Ambassadors, Eco Stars and Subject Ambassador roles. Some of the activities that they have been involved with have included growing sunflowers for our local hospice and visiting to see them fully grown and delivering thank you joy plants to our local community. Pupils tell us that they enjoy the opportunity to volunteer to help make their school an even better place to be and rising to the challenge that additional responsibility brings.