Yesterday we celebrated our first ever culture and diversity day as a school community under the incredible leadership of Year 12 student Ngozi and a group of enthusiastic friends. Driven by their passion for sharing the diversity which exists here at St Gregory’s, the group put together an exciting day filled with dance, music, fashion and food.
Launched to students at the beginning of the week, so many were able to find a way of coming into school representing their cultural heritage through dress. The vibrancy of colour around the school was a sight to behold. Break time brought a pop up dance session on the stage in the hall with so many students deciding to give Bollywood dancing a go.
The theme of music continued with workshops led by a Senegalese instrumentalist who ran sessions with Djemba drums and a Kora, before entertaining the school during lunch. As hundreds of use enjoyed the incredible talent of Mamadou, the international tasting cafe was a huge hit as students sampled food from Poland, Romania, Nigeria, India, Zimbabwe and many more countries.
Finally, many students took the time to cook or bake at home and brought in entries for our international food competition. There was a mixture of sweet and savoury entries, and whilst it was a truly enjoyable experience to sample everything, it was very hard to separate the winners. In the end we decided on two runners up, Nora who brought in sumptuous Char Sui Pork, and Lily-May’s Peking duck pancakes. The overall winner was ‘Flan Napolitano’ – a traditional Mexican desert from year 8 student Paola, Congratulations!
Next year we hope to develop the foundations of this celebration and make it a much bigger event capturing more of what makes the community of St Gregory’s so special.
