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Culture Day 2023!

Miss Allen and Miss Shabbir started a group for BME students in November 2022. They have been working hard to bring together PACA’s first ever Culture Day.

As two members of staff who come from different ethnic backgrounds, they were able to empathise with the experiences of our racially-minoritised groups within the school. Our students want to feel recognised and celebrated, and that is how the idea to dedicate a day at school to commemorate cultural differences began!

We all want to feel seen and heard, and it's frequent to find that BME people do not get the opportunity to be within the spotlight. Culture Day gave an opportunity to share the beauty and variety of culture and diversity amongst our student body and staff members.

With the responsibility and control of Culture Day being in the student’s hands, Miss Allen and Miss Shabbir held weekly meetings with the BME group to develop, challenge and expand the boundaries of the project, the objective being that this event would become the first of many more, as well as raising money for Brighton bookshop Afrori Books - the only black-owned/led bookshop that hosts a diverse range of authors, creatives and events.

The students crafted recipes, developed a Spotify playlist, researched important figures that other students may not know about, and started to bridge the gaps within the local area. They were encouraged to come into school with their traditional/cultural dress and flags. Local poet, actress and podcast co-host Mahalia Dewar was invited to perform some of her own poetry, and engage with students whilst delivering a poetry workshop. In total, we raised £82.23 for Afrori Books, which will be going towards the development of new premises which they have recently been relocated to, and their future projects within the bookshop.

Miss Allen and Miss Shabbir will be starting Drop-Ins for our BME students within the school; if you are interested and would like to find out more, please speak to them!

To witness students embracing their culture with pride within school grounds, and other students budding to listen and learn, took our breath away as project coordinators. It truly nurtured our inner children, too. We thank all the students and staff who got stuck-in, to whatever capacity that was, and we also thank our ancestors, who have led us to this moment today; we hope that we have celebrated you, too. Here’s to many more Culture Days! Miss Allen