Cultural Capital
Our Academy curriculum vision is to “provide EVERY student the opportunity to acquire academic excellence and those skills, qualities and experiences that develop well-rounded, successful and happy members of modern society”.
At Wixams we want the potential of all of our students to be unleashed and we passionately oppose the idea of predestined outcomes based on stigma, background and prior performance.
Coined by 1970s French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, he identified three sources of cultural capital – objective, embodied and institutionalised.
Institutionalised: qualifications, education credentials;
Embodied: language, mannerisms, preferences;
Objective: cultural goods, books, works of art.
How do we enhance the ‘Cultural Capital’ of our students?
Institutionalised:
- We deliver an ambitious and rich curriculum for EVERY student.
- We follow the full National Curriculum at Key Stage 3 (KS3) to give our students the broadest and best start to their secondary education.
- EVERY student has access to the full ambitious curriculum. We do not reduce, narrow or restrict the curriculum for any learners.
- We offer additional elective qualifications as part of our elective/enrichment curriculum, including: Home Language GCSE; Duke of Edinburgh Award; Sports Leaders and Arts Awards.
- We pay for music lessons for disadvantaged students: singing, violin, guitar, drum and piano.
- Sporting participation and competitive success are strong at the Academy.
Embodied:
- We pride ourselves on an extremely rich ‘wider curriculum’ including 35 extracurricular clubs; electives; trips and visits; values.
- We are a ‘Voice 21’ affiliated school and our in-house trainer develops students’ ‘Oracy’ skills through an Academy wide programme.
- As a ‘Royal Shakespeare Company’ associate school, we incorporate elements into our SOLs, and hosted a summer ‘Romeo and Juliet’ celebration for our students and other local schools.
- Students started our own ‘Humankind’ group to tackle all issues of diversity and equality. The group meets regularly and raises awareness and influences strategy in the Academy.
- Student Voice is strong in the Academy. The Junior Leadership Team contribute to strategy on environment, behaviour, curriculum and equality. The Head Girl is the current Chair of the Bedford Youth Parliament. She has chosen ‘Youth Mental Health’ as the Academy’s focus for the ‘Make Your Mark’ youth parliament initiative this year.
- Academy Students in the past have led Bedford Borough initiatives on: Refugee Week (with a devised drama piece at Borough Hall); Knife Crime (at Police Headquarters) and are trained Anne Frank Ambassadors, hosting the display and local primary schools here.
Objective:
- Our library has an ‘Art Gallery’ area, with student work and that of local artists.
- Our library houses museum displays: currently a ‘First World War’ trench exhibit from the Higgins Museum.
- Students have worked with local artists to produce our ‘Values Mosaic’ in the dining room and the ‘Bedford Visions’ montage.
- A student will be painting her ‘Street Art – Academy Expectations’ piece in the playground for all to appreciate in Spring 2022.