Culture Day at Arena Academy!

One of our Birmingham Programme Coordinators, Charlotte, tells us about her recent day at Arena Academy as they delivered a fantastic Culture Day as part of their Envision social action project.

Team Core Culture at Arena Academy were recently crowned the winners of the 2022-23 Envision Birmingham Programme, after demonstrating their passion and culture in their school community from their first session. Alongside their Programme Coordinator, Charlotte, and their mentors from NFP, the team had discussions about how diverse their school community is and how they could go about celebrating those cultures together.

The team had many brilliant ideas, ranging from cultural ambassadors to workshops on specific cultures. However, they decided to focus on improving the annual culture day that already existed within their school, as this was a more realistic and achievable project. They suggested a culture assembly, lunchtime activities, cultural food, a culture census, and a culture catwalk.

Last week, some of the Birmingham Envision team were delighted to be able to attend the culmination of their social action project. The morning of culture day saw young people arriving at school in cultural clothes and flags, with the team starting the day by delivering an assembly to Year 9 on the importance of inclusivity and cultural diversity.

At lunchtime, food from all around the world was enjoyed as well as activities such as henna and art. The day concluded with an amazing cultural catwalk, which was a sea of colour, music, and dance. It was fantastic to see the young people proudly modelling their cultural dress, with some teachers even getting involved!

It was definitely a day to remember and a reminder how powerful youth social action can be! We can’t wait to see what the next cohort of young people get up to in the new year and hear all about how they want to make their community an even better place.