It may only be Express your Culture Day's second year on the Harrodian calendar but it's already clear that this is an annual event that is here to stay.
Launched last year as a celebration both of personal and national identities and of the spirit of friendship within our school community, Express your Culture Day has caught the imagination of our school community.
This year's event was just as exuberant and joyous as 2023's with Harrodians of all ages enthusiastically grasping the chance to dig into their family or personal history and heritage, to dress up in national or local costumes, and to tell people about their culture and/or identity and what it means to them.
See a gallery of Harrodian pupils and teachers in costume
In this video made by Sixth Former, Sampson, teachers and pupils within our Harrodian community talk about what their personal culture means to them.
There were assorted peep-through photo boards in the Marquee to pose in and a lovely selfie frame created by the art department, above, which allowed pupils and staff to demonstrate their commitment to inclusivity.
See a gallery of all the parent stalls at Express your Culture Day
Harrodian parents play as big a part in Culture Day’s success as their children. Many hosted stalls in our trusty Marquee, each representing and celebrating their national culture and demonstrating national skills from calligraphy to dancing and all our pupils had timetabled slots to visit this venue during the day.
Everyone at Harrodian is so grateful for all the effort our parents put into making the day a success. There were games to play, competitions to enter, jewellery and clothes to try on and an abundance of sweet and savoury national and local dishes to sample, all washed down with special flavoured teas and coffees and other soft drinks.
Our own catering team joined in the fun too with a week-long festival of world food that reached its climax with a Portuguese menu complete with delicious natas created by Harrodian's own chef, Josef.
Other highlights ranged from an inspiring talk by Hope not Hate in the Auditorium, a Tai Chi lesson and dance shows of all kinds ranging from the impromptu dancing on the stage in the middle of the Marquee performed to a world music soundtrack to the spectacle of a superb display of middle eastern dancing up on Harrodian's top 'Astro' at 12.30pm which the children joined in with on their lunch break.
We're building on this world dance theme in our morning sports assemblies this week and next with our Lower and Upper Prep dance clubs performing world dances with the help of our resident choreographer Alice Jarvis. The details are below:
- Lower Prep Boys - New Zealand Haka (Friday 22nd)
- 8s dance club - Irish Ceilidh (Friday 22nd)
- 9s dance club - Spanish Flamenco (Friday 22nd)
- 10s dance club - Greek dancing (Friday 22nd)
- 11s dance club - Bhangra from India (Monday 25th)
- 12s dance club - Line dancing from America (Monday 25th)