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.

I agree. And for such young children who may well accidentally eat something that they are allergic too. I honestly think most teachers just don’t give a shit about children with allergies.

And look at all the suggestions- adults lining up to suggest ways to include junk food as a celebration of Englishness. what is the point.

I went to international schools and we always had a day like that and the English parents hated it because there was nothing obvious to dress us in compared to all the beautiful varieties of traditional dress that other children would come in wearing. One year I remember an English kid coming in wearing a raincoat, and one year a few of the English mum’s dressed their daughters in their very nicest/ fairly traditional looking party dresses, pinned roses to us and said we were “English Roses”. Those are the only ones I can remember I’m afraid. I think the Paddington angle is a good one, although strictly he is from Peru 🙂

celebrate being white British without causing any offence

Why should anyone be offended, you have as much right to celebrate your culture as anyone else! If anyone's offended they're just showing their racisim.

theres a lot I could do with Norfolk, definitely- my ancestors were Cromer fishermen. Indeed it is a beautiful part of the world. I might save it for next year when they are a little bit older though. But it’s a great one to have in the bag!

Husband is, actually, a Bow-bells born and bred East-London-ite. Maybe he could teach a bit of rhyming slang.

My son went as David Attenborough for culture day - took in his nature spotters note book from the WLT for an activity.

OP - what part of the UK are you from? Maybe you could do something that was specific to your area. My friend's child is from Hackney and I remember she dressed him as a hipster ;) I found it funny (although others had no idea what he came as).

Norfolk has so many options. I’m from not far from there. When we go home the thing that blows my London kids mind the most… is going below sea level! When we go through the fens they are just 🤯

You know the oldest biography in English that we have comes from Norfolk. Margery Kempe lived in Kings Lynn (Bisphops Lynn then) in the 14th Century. Her biography gives incredible details of women’s lives then. She was a religious mystic and travelled solo to Jerusalem and back. She also has given us one of the oldest descriptions of postpartum psychosis (though you might leave that out for reception kids)

Marmalade sandwiches are boring.

Take in some pork pies and as for your 5 min activity, print out the words to Bohemian Rhapshody and have an insane singalong. Dress DS as a punk.

@DancingonmyOwn88 the cockney rhyming slang could be great fun (although filtering out any rude ones).

I know this but I do try to keep one mind on the fact that, historically, Britain have been a bit shit about claiming parts of the world and stamping out other cultures. This is what I mean by saying I don’t want to cause offence by going in all Rule Britannia.

All of our culture is imported or stolen so I don't really think it counts as our own. Even our language isn't even unique, it's Germanic and is only a world language because of the Imperial influence of the United States. It may as well be called American instead of English in all honesty, seeing as though American English is taught to most pupils around the world.

Oooh, is the groaning cake made from placenta, by any chance?

Paddington Bear/marmalade sandwiches
Mince pies, yes
Crumbles - more difficult to carry around and eat in class

Jellied eels? A local hotel here, deepest Norfolk, often has a jellied eels evening, lots of Londoners retire here, my stomach heaves every time I drive by the notice!

If the children, or a group of them make the sandwiches themselves, it will be fine.

I would do scones. Or coronation chicken sandwiches which were invented for the Queens Jubilee. Or Victoria Sponge Cake. Or cucumber sandwiches. A mini afternoon tea basically as thats very English.

For the activities bit how about cricket thats very English. If if needs to be indoors what about making crowns as the royal family is very English.

This doesn't help on the food front but I had exactly the same issue back in the day.
White British but live in a very diverse area with lots of countries and cultures represented.
One time DC dressed as the EU, with a stars T-shirt (can't remember what else)
Another time a T-shirt saying "global citizen". This must have been early secondary as I remember the geography teacher commented they liked it.
Overall I think it's less about the whiteness and more about the British.

@DebbieSavage strange view.
Does where in England you are from really have nothing of it's own history or traditions.
I think you need to visit your local museum.

These children are 5!

Victoria sponge traybake.
Game of cricket.
Show some pictures of things that famous English people have invented, like Brunel, Wedgwood, Stephenson, Tim Berners-Lee and explain their impact. Or maybe do something on Turing and code-breaking? Or could you tell the story of Guy Fawkes nearly blowing parliament up if you’re in London.

i like this for a later one but it might be a bit difficult for a class only just getting to grips with the letters in their own names 😂

Paddington or a teddy bear's picnic are lovely ideas. Or Alice in Wonderland and a Mad Hatter's Tea party?

Food? Scones. Very British, plus you can start two cultural debates for the price of one - jam or cream first, and is it "o" like "phone" or like "gone"?

If you're doing the cockney London with the pearly Queen, surely it would be jellied eels. :)

I think people are missing that it's "Cultural Day" and being "White English" isn't one culture.
Traditions and lifestyles are (historically) different all over England.
Cornish culture is different to the culture of Yorkshire.
Cumbria is different to Essex.

Folk songs, there are some traditional English, even East Anglian ones, or nursey rhymes. Low calorie, no risk to anyone with an allergy.

It's arguable that the diversity of cultures at the school is part of being English. People who moved and found a home here. Not sure how that could be scripted though.

Wow! Just wiki'd Margery Kempe. Very interesting, thank you!