Cultural Capital IN ENGLISH
At St Pius X Catholic Primary School, our aim is for our children to join us on a learning journey, which will equip them for their future. We want our children to leave us at Year 6 with a deep reading and writing knowledge, a range of reading skills, and a love of books, writing, learning and ambition.
Cultural Capital is not something that is ‘given’ or ‘taught’. It is about culture, language, traditions and experiences. At St Pius, we want to celebrate the uniqueness of us all and share our differences and individualism. We have carefully designed our reading spine to provide every child with the opportunity to either see themselves as a character in a book, or see themselves as a possible future author.
We have created Cultural Capital Reading Calendar to share local, national and global Reading events, many of which we take part in at St Pius. These events are just one part of our Reading and Writing cultural capital journey. Many of the cultural capital experiences we give our children at St Pius are carefully embedded within our Reading curriculum, designed to enrich children’s knowledge and understanding and equip and prepare them for their futures.
Please see below for examples of reading and writing cultural capital in our school
Reading Nooks
Every class in school has a dedicated Reading area known as a 'Reading Nook'. In the Reading Nook, the class reading spine is displayed. Our lower shelves are used to display books chosen and recommended by the children for their classmates. Each week a different child has the opportunity to chose the 'Reader Recommendations' and they are given time to talk about why they have chosen their books. This helps the children to develop their oracy and confidence in presenting to their peers.
Books are carefully selected to be placed in the Reading Nook area:. In KS1 and KS2, non fiction books are available linked to the children's studies in Geography, History or Science. The children also have access to a wide range of fiction with additonal books by authors they have studied, and books chosen from the Library Bus. In EYFS, books are changed weekly so that the children are able to make deliberate choices about what they read. They also vote each day for the book they will share in Storytime.
Reader of the Week
At St Pius X we enjoy and celebrate reading. Every week, in our Celebration Assembly, we award our 'Reader of the Week' trophy to a child in each class. This recognises children who have tried really hard with their reading both in school and at home.
Enrichment and Cultural Capital Calendar
Please see our diary of school, local, national and global events. Those highlighted yellow will be celebrated by the whole school community:
Library
We believe that everyone needs an inviting and happy space to enjoy a book. In September 2020, we refurbished our library. We have given it a complete revamp! It has been painted, redecorated and completely changed ready for the children to enjoy. Our library is jungle themed. Our Key Stage 2 reading books are kept in the library along with lots of other exciting books.
Librarians
We have a fantastic school library which is run and looked after by our Year 5 librarians. As part of their role they make sure the books are organised. Each half term, they speak to our EYFS staff and together they decide on a focus for the EYFS Reading Basket. The children then plan the basket for the EYFS children to use which includes books for them to enjoy, toys or artefacts which match the theme of the basket and sometimes fun quizzes for games for the children to play.
Share a Book with Someone Special
Each term, our families are invited into school to read with their child, These Reading for Pleasure sessions encourage parents, carers and children to take time together to enjoy a wide range of books including fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
Get Caught Reading
For our Easter Newsletter Challenge, we asked our children and their families to 'Get Caught Reading' in the most unusual places. We had so many wonderful entries and they are on display in our school hall.
Barrow Library Visits
Each term, every class is able to visit the local library for a reading session or workshop with the librarian. The children love this opportunity to immerse themselves in a wide range of books and enjoy sharing them together.
World Book Day 2024
This year's World Book Day was so much fun. Every class shared the wonderful book 'Mixed' by Arree Chung. We all dressed up up as our favourite colour. We then went back to our classes and took part in a wealth of activities to immerse ourselves in the magical world the book had invited us into.
#ThereIsNoAppToReplaceYourLap
We have a long standing challenge where parents and carers are encouraged to spend quality time sharing a story with their child (ideally sat on their lap). We believe that nothing quite beats sharing a physical book. Parents are encouraged to share photos and videos on our social media pages using #ThereIsNoAppToReplaceYourLap.
Book Fair
Each year the Book Fair comes to school and the children are given the chance to purchase a new book! Each class is given a slot throughout the week where the children go to the Book Fair and explore all of the wonderful books on offer.
READvent
Throughout the month of December, staff and governors read pages from The World's Worst Teacher by David Walliams. A new video was posted daily on our school Facebook page. This allowed all children to enjoy a story and to raise the profile of reading.
Author Visits
In Autumn term 2022, some children from Year 5 and 6 attended an A.I.M High Writing event with author, Terry Caffrey. During this session they wrote and performed poems.
In 2020 KS1 enjoyed a visit from an author. They enjoyed story time and even did some role play to match the story! All children had the chance to purchase a signed copy of the Author's book.
Book Bus
At St Pius X we are very lucky to have the Library Book Bus visit us once a term! We get to swap all of our library bus books and get new ones to enjoy in class! While the Library Book Bus is with us we get the chance to enjoy story time and explore lots of new stories! In the Summer term, we choose a book for a child in the next year's class that we think they may enjoy.
