Sheldon Celebrates First Culture Day

Sheldon School and Sixth Form held its first ever Culture Day on 13 February to celebrate the rich cultural heritage and diversity with the school. The event was spearheaded and organised by the Sheldon Sixth Form Co-Presidents, Sayma and Amber, with the Student Leadership Team. The afternoon included music and food from around the globe.

“Holding a Culture Day was always Sayma’s vision,” explained one of Sheldon Sixth Form's Co-Presidents, Amber. “It was in our presidential campaign to host the school’s first ever Culture Day and since the moment we got elected, we have worked hard to achieve this goal. I would say it’s the most genuine fun I have had during my time at Sheldon.”

The school community has a growing student population that represents cultures from across the globe. Within the school community, there are students and staff from over 77 countries and nearly 60 different languages are spoken. As students arrived at Culture Day, they were asked to mark a map with their family’s heritage. Pins were placed all over the board from Siberia to South Africa and Bangladesh to the Brazil.

Head of Sheldon Sixth Form, Eugene Spiers, was pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm for the event. “It was a great celebration of the diversity in our school. The Hall was busy and vibrant and the students really got into the spirit of it.”

The afternoon included a Culture Catwalk, in which students from Year 11 through Y13 wore clothing to reflect their heritage and strutted their stuff to a specially curated playlist of world music. There was a buffet of delicious food prepared by students including onion bhajis, jollof rice, fried dough, dumplings and more. Other activities included henna application, face painting and a raffle for an international food hamper to raise funds for Sheldon’s charity of the year, Wiltshire and Bath Air Ambulance. Several teachers got into the fun with a spicy noodle eating competition.

Students were overwhelmingly enthusiastic and respectful throughout Culture Day and found that the event helped bring them closer together. “Culture Day was amazing! The food was great and the vibe was really good,” said a student in Year 11.

Sheldon School and Sixth Form hope to make Culture Day an annual tradition, with events and activities expanding to the lower school next year. “We’re looking forward to doing this again,” said Mr Spiers as he closed the event. “We’ll make it even bigger and better next year!”