Cultural Day at Primary School

[DancingonmyOwn88]

Looking for ideas! Not a political debate.

it’s Cultural appreciation Day next week at my son’s school, there’s quite a lot of different backgrounds that his classmates are coming from (only 15 in the class but it’s a southeast London borough) and we are actually in a bit of a minority being white British.

But they want parents to be involved which is very nice and it happens to be a day I’m not working, so they’re inviting us to come in and do a 5-10 min activity and take some traditional food from your culture to a class lunch.

As I say we are just English. Not even any Scottish or Irish or Welsh or things that are widely celebrated. I suppose it’s just making me wonder if it’s ‘ok’ to outwardly celebrate being white British without causing any offence (please no Reform-esque debates here I am trying to navigate it appropriately!

What do I do? Learn morris dancing? Dress as a Pearly Queen 😂

I thought about just reading a Paddington Bear book and making some marmalade sandwiches but is that a bit lame?

DS is only in reception by the way so they’re all very small obviously and they’re still all getting to know each other as a class.

Love the scones idea. Other food-related ideas:

• Victoria sponge cake
• Eccles cakes
• Chelsea buns
• Parsnips/Turnips are not a common food outside of Europe and are in season now
• It's a bit early, but mince pies are also a very typically British food.
• Cheeses - Wensleydale/Double Gloucester/Red Leicester with some crackers?

Well it’s no nuts as a school policy and you include an ingredient list, so I guess they feel able to manage it, although I take your point about hygiene.

@DancingonmyOwn88 which south east borough are you in?
I live near Southwark where there was once a biscuit factory.
An activity could be decorating plain biscuits.

Afternoon tea.
English cheeses.
Folk song teach a simple one londons burning
Strange customs of the UK - Atlas Obscura Lists share.google/DETiX8PaGI5xKraVE

I think your Paddington and marmalade sandwiches idea is great. Similar dilemma here (also a SE London melting pot) and we have tended to go for making a certain cake local to the part of England DH comes from!

i know exactly what you mean OP! Clothing wise we went sports - cricket jumper and hat or a football shirt. For the activity I love the Paddington idea.

Making it Borough specific is brilliant, although I’m in Croydon so I’m not really too sure what that would throw up, I guess it’s a fairly new London postcode incision!

Im from Norfolk originally though, I guess I could get my accent out and teach them about bushy barnabees 😂

This made me laugh

Try to think; if you were based in, I dunno, Paraguay, and it was 'Culture Day', what would you choose to share? Many things are available to you as a white Brit (which I am not); Shakespeare (toooo many literature greats to name), the Monarchy, well-defined cultural periods of time (Tudor vs Victorian vs Regency etc), regional food classics, Mr Bean, Olde English vs contemporary English, Del Boy... the list is so endless,

...it is always interesting when we have a culture day at school and the white kids mostly come in dressed in football kits or tops with flags. Maybe this is a case of being blind to what's in your face everyday.

Paddington bear idea is cute.

Given the time of year, why not talk about British farming and the harvest and what beautiful fruits and berries can be found in hedgerows etc, make them into a crumble or similar. One thing England does have in abundance is beautiful rolling countryside.

Oh Croydon.
Poor Croydon gets a bad rap and I could make many jokes here but I won't 😁
Croydon had the first international airport.
An activity to do with that maybe (making paper planes?).
Not sure about food 🤔

What else are they meant to wear though, genuinely? When other kids are wearing clothes that they wear to mosque etc - ie not a “costume”

It’s not world book day so they’d look a bit silly dressed up as King Arthur or a pearly king next to kids in their usual cultural dress.

Paddington with marmalade sandwiches and teddy bears picnic both sound like great ideas for reception age.

I think mince pies are too ubiquitous and many kids don't like them anyway.

Or if you come from a specific area of England and their is a local dish/bake that isn't particularly common elsewhere then you could bring that. But having a fun theme seems better.

Why did you mention offence then?

I would make coronation chicken sandwiches or apple pies!

For the activity I might try and think of something we did in our youth- e.g. hopscotch comes from England.

The Paddington idea is fine but I don't know how many children like marmalade!

It does I know 😂 it has a surprising amount going for it, though. (And lots of shit going on as well 😅)

The school is brilliant though so far, very inclusive and celebratory of diversity.

I am a chronic over thinker, and I just want to get involved but I want to ‘get it right’ . I’m glad quite a few posters are able to understand that :)

The strengths of English cuisine are the breakfast and the desserts/cakes, so I'd definitely go for afternoon tea-type items. Victoria sponge, scones, fruit cake are good.

Is your son in Cub Scouts? Quite a few of the British children wore Scout/Brownies uniforms for these days. Football/cricket/rugby shirt. Paddington works or you could consider Peppa Pig or Hey Duggee too.

Scouts is a great shout, that’s what I will dress mine in next time.

The outfit for cultural day causes so much stress every year 😅

i think the thread has moved on now, and perhaps you need to do the same. Thankfully the majority have been helpful rather than try to pick holes.

5,000 years of history = jam sandwich?

Make some jam tarts and do a Mad Hatter's tea party.

Too little for scouts, but we do have a little King’s Guard outfit I found in a charity shop 😂

worrying about causing offence by celebrating being “white British” is a bit silly, isn’t it, and just feeds the Reform mob who claim we csnh do anything anymore. The whole point of the celebration is around diversity of cultures and hod that makes life better and more fulfills for everyone. Also consider would you be celebrating being “white British” or actually just British? It’s certainly going to be the latter and you’ve got loads of things to chose from.
Food-wise, I sent Eccles cakes in with my kids when they did a similar thing. Or scones and jam.
Stop second guessing yourself and stressing about it!

This is one of those views I see on Mumsnet regularly and absolutely never encounter in real life. Our school has a cultural food day every year where parents bring in food (including hot food in our case) from their culture. It makes more money than any event except the summer fair, is extremely busy and zero complaints. I just don't know anyone who would think like this.