From my visit to Barr’s Hill School in Coventry for their 2024 Culture Day celebrations, it became very clear to me the importance of student-led, and staff-supported, cultural initiatives in schools in improving students’ sense of belonging and reducing cultural alienation amongst the students.
Friday 23 February 2024 marked the second annual Culture Day at Barr’s Hill, and I was privileged to have played a small part in the day. I was invited by Miss Wilcox, Head of Post-16, to meet and speak with some of the student organisers of Culture Day, in both my capacity as a local historian and a researcher of the PortraitEMB project.
At Barr’s Hill, Culture Day follows the framework set out by Routes into Languages (2006 – ), a nationwide initiative “promoting the take up of languages and student mobility”. In their ‘how-to’ guide for schools, they give details for those interested in establishing their own Language/Culture Day:
A language and culture day is an event for school pupils which involves them in a range of activities not usually carried out in the classroom. The focus can be anything you like but popular topics include exploring different countries and cultures where taught languages are spoken and / or trying out new languages.[1]
Culture Day is an ordinary school day at Barr’s Holl that includes activities around multi-cultural learning and appreciation. From speaking to staff and students, I found that the entire day is organised by the students. The first Culture Day took place in June 2023, organised by a group of Year 11s as an event intended to relieve stress for all students about to take their exams. Staff eagerly welcomed the idea, as they had been wanting something to acknowledge the diversity of the student population. The initial day was such a success that the students worked with their teachers to organise another day for 2024.
I had the opportunity to speak to some of the original organisers, as well as others brought in for this year. They told me what was in store for this year, which included all students being invited to wear traditional cultural clothing, a lunchtime runway for students to showcase their outfits, and a shared buffet of food deriving from the different countries represented that day. I was eager to know the level of comfort among students who came wearing traditional clothing; to me, it seemed this might feel exposing for students, creating a sense of vulnerability.
On speaking to students, however, I came to realise it was, in fact, the opposite. This kind of cultural expression was a reminder for students that they are part of a large and diverse student population, and when everyone is dressed in their clothing, it is a reminder that you are not alone. As one of the student organisers told me, “When you’re wearing your culture clothes, people can express who they are and where they come from. It’s just a way to express yourself”.
The opportunity for self-expression is incredibly important for students, especially those in diverse schools where the general curriculum does not reflect who they are as individuals. A 2023 report, “Schools for All?”, which explored young people’s experiences of alienation in the English secondary school system, further reinforces this idea. They recognise “curriculum-based alienation” as a product of
…a cultural mismatch between young people’s interests, aptitudes and aspirations and the narrow academic curriculum and test-focused culture of the classroom. This mismatch can result in young people feeling unfulfilled, bored, and frustrated by having to engage with curriculum content that lacks meaning for them and over which they have little or no choice and control.[2]
Culture Day can be an opportunity outside of this “narrow test focussed curriculum” to offer scope to engage with something that represents who they are.
During my visit, I led an hour-long workshop with fifteen Year 12/13 students who had helped organise the day. We had several discussions about the project, my work, their interests and ambitions. I opened by asking them a project-related question: what is belonging? I invited them to brainstorm their answers with each other, and I have presented their answers in a mind map below:
From this, we can see that for most of these students belonging is a feeling: an emotion closely tied to your relationship with other people. I also discovered that their sense of what belonging is was closely aligned with their motivations behind organising the Culture Day.
The students’ motivations were varied. However, they all agreed with one student’s opinion: “Culture Day is a physical reminder that we’re not all from the same place … but it has brought us all together”.
A massive thank you to Miss Wilcox and Mr Oliver for welcoming me to Barr’s Hill and I look forward to seeing what Culture Day 2025 looks like!
Readers, we’d love to hear if your school has an annual Culture Day/Week? If so, what does it look like?
NOTES
[1] Charlotte McPherson, Sait Bayrakdar, Sharon Gewirtz, Andrea Laczik, Meg Maguire, Olly Newton, Siobhan O’Brien, Alice Weavers, Chris Winch & Alison Wolf, ‘Schools for All? Young people’s experiences of alienation in the English secondary school system’, People’s Experiences (February 2023): 18. (https://www.edge.co.uk/documents/349/DD0940_-_Young_Futures_Young_Lives_FINAL_JVbavJ7.pdf) [accessed 12/03/2024].
[2] Routes into Languages, “How to …’ guide – Language and Culture Days’, (https://www.routesintolanguages.ac.uk/sites/routesintolanguages.ac.uk/files/attachments/resources/2930/how-tolanguage-days.pdf) [accessed 12/03/2024].