Culture Day 2024 - An occasion for all

Culture Day was a colourful, successful and informative day!

This is the second year Priory has organised a special Culture Day with Head of ICT & Computing, Mrs Qadri, leading it with help from her ‘Culture Club,’ which meet once a week.

There has been Henna painting all week, a special hot food menu on the day, music from different cultures playing at break and lunch (MaBaL), a food sale at break - including samosas, spring rolls and more - and pupils dressing up in their traditional cultural clothes.  There was also a Greek food workshop after school, led by Mrs Cowell.  Pupils were asked to donate £1 if they chose to wear their own clothes and all money raised in donations from the event are going to the Red Cross and Friends of Mulanje Orphans (Malawi).

Mrs Qadri said: “We pride ourselves on our diversity and vast cultural community at Priory – we have on average 15 different ethnicities and more than 20 different languages spoken.

“Having a day to celebrate our culture is important. It’s always a popular day – especially the Henna tattoos.”

Having a day to celebrate our culture is something that has been requested by many of our pupils and we agree that it is extremely important for children to be proud of their identities, faiths and cultures, but also to share their background with their peers.

Year 11 Favour said: “I helped to start Culture Day last year, going back to my Nigerian heritage, to help people understand other cultures and accept them. I felt we needed a colourful day so it was nice to wear traditional dress for school.”

Year 10 Tasha said: “Culture Club meets every Wednesday where we discuss all the different cultures. It's good to have a day to organise events and have different cultures highlighted more."

Year 8 Lily said: “I had a Henna tattoo last year and came back for another this year as I think they are pretty.”

During Learning for Life on the Thursday, Audrey Toft, a trustee from one of the Culture Day beneficiaries, Friends of Mulanje Orphans (Malawi), delivered an online assembly to talk about how the pupils’ donations we will be used. She also asked to come in on Friday to see how our pupils celebrated and to enjoy the morning with us.

Mrs Toft said, "On behalf of FOMO I would like to thank the school for inviting me in to give a presentation about FOMO and life in Malawi. Hopefully I gave the pupils some idea of what life is like for people in Malawi, and for the orphans we support. 

She went on to say, "I was very pleased with the way quite a number entered into the spirit of the event afterwards. And also on Friday morning – very colourful and enjoyable!"
 
Mrs Qadri, added, “We have worked with this charity previously, donating decommissioned laptops which are currently in use in Malawi”.  

Not to be left out, staff were able to purchase traditional Indian food and snacks to take home, made by Mrs Qadri and her family.