To explore a pupil’s cultures and communites of practice


To explore a pupil's cultures and communities of practice.

Evidence and reflection

Select a pupil in your class. Think through a typical school day, in the life of this pupil. Consider who the child interacts with at each stage of the day and how you can characterise the culture, practices, and shared values of each of these social groups. The items in the first column are included to give you a rough guideline as to how to divide the day into chunks of social interaction. You will probably want to adapt these to suit the individual. For example during the evening the child may go to an out of a school club, visit relatives or hang out with mates in the local playground. You will also find you can develop a much more detailed list of time chunks than the one presented here. For example during lessons children may be working in groups, pairs, or as whole class.  In the right-hand column you can add information about the cultural activities, practices, shared phrases, and highly prized artefacts, that characterise this particular social group during this period of time.

Name of pupil

Times of the day

Names of individuals interacting with the pupil during this period of time.

Description of the culture of this social group during this period of time

At home. Getting up in the morning



'Breakfast' time



Travelling to school



Arriving at school



Registration time



Early am lessons



Mid am break



Late am lessons












Early pm lessons



Mid pm break



Late pm lessons



Travelling home



Early evening.



Evening meal



Late evening





Repeat this activity with another pupil - deliberately selecting one that you consider to exist in very different cultures compared with your first pupil.