John Cabot Academy’s students and staff have come together to celebrate the broad diversity of nationalities and backgrounds within the school.
During lockdown, students were supported to set up a school Equalities Council to tackle inequality and diversity. Miss Grierson, who helped to organise Culture Day, said: “Students felt that we needed to celebrate the student diversity we have at JCA and educate one another about different cultures that exist at our school.”
Culture Day, held on June 29, was planned and delivered by the Equalities Council and some visiting staff from various organisations. Students from Year 7 to Year 13 participated throughout the day.
The day itself created a range of ways for everyone at John Cabot Academy, including students and staff, to immerse and educate themselves about different cultures.
As part of this, students brought in delicious sweet and savoury foods that are representative of different cultures to feature in food tasting tables at break time. This enabled students to try different foods and talk about what they were eating. In addition, students were encouraged to wear clothing that is linked to their culture or alternatively, the colours of the flag that they associate with.
Students put lots of effort into their clothing and showcased their cultures in doing so. To highlight this, students hosted a Culture Day fashion show in JCA’s main hall, with students gaining entry to be in the audience with a ‘golden ticket’ from the student lottery.
Throughout the day lessons took a different spin, with different subjects delivering lessons about different people, art and cultural traditions from around the world. This was alongside some visiting presentations from South Gloucestershire Music Hub musicians and Creative Youth Network and a live Congolese drumming and vocal group from Bristol Beacon. In addition, there was a cricket coaching session for KS3 students that took place outside, albeit in the rain, with Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation.
John Cabot has plans for Culture Day to occur annually and eventually include the wider community too. A spokesperson for the Equalities Council said: “We would like to expand our culture day into our parent/carer community and get families involved in building our JCA community.”
