Culture Week

Members of The Leigh Academy Diversity Club proposed that a  Culture Week should be added to the academy calendar this academic year. The purpose of Culture Week was to celebrate different ethnic cultures that are represented at The Leigh Academy - as learning about ethnic cultures can help us gain a greater appreciation for the diversity of human experiences and increase our understanding and tolerance of other cultures.  We aimed to  promote empathy and respect-  we believe that understanding the values, beliefs, and practices of other cultures can help us develop empathy, respect and kindness for people from different backgrounds. 

We focused on a different continent on each day; we looked at a variety of music, sports, belief systems, food and language through the week, and we had a non-uniform day when we encouraged staff and students to wear their tradition cultural attire or colours of their national flag. 

Students Amber, Cassidy and Gloria, ambassadors of the Diversity Club wrote:

" We started planning for Culture Week in January. We have been excited about sharing culture week with the school and put it into action. To see the reaction the week before was amazing to see. People were planning what they were going to wear and what cultural attire they’d wear. It was really good for us in Diversity Club to see as we have been working and waiting since January. We are grateful that the academy has allowed us to put this in place for the students. Last year we had the opportunity to put on a Fashion Show for the Seacole College and had students participating and showing off their fantastic cultural attire. We had people from Nepal, India, Jamaica, Algeria, the Republic of Congo, Vietnam and so many more. It was wonderful to see people getting to express themselves and not feel as though they were different but a part of an accepting and open-minded community. We are so happy to have been able to do this for other students as students ourselves. It is good to have a voice and to be able to make others feel comfortable with who they are. "