On Friday 7 November, the Abbey Senior School celebrated Diversity Day. This year’s theme was ‘cultures within cultures’ and focused on how diverse traditions, histories, and languages exist within different countries. It was also a dress down day on Friday and the school was filled with bright colours as students and staff wore clothes that represented their cultural heritage.

During lunch, students set up stalls representing their countries, cultures, and geographical regions and many students brought in delicious snacks and treats to share. Richards Hall was filled with students and staff learning about the cultures that make up our diverse school community, tasting food from all over the world, listening to our multicultural Diversity Day playlist, and watching wonderful dance performances from our talented students.

After lunch, Fatima and Iyla, our two dedicated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion prefects led a workshop for Upper III students in the lecture theatre. Iyla gave an informative talk on Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous rights and Fatima explored this year’s theme in her talk on cultures within cultures in Pakistan. After their presentation, Upper III students created visual representations of their own cultures and of what diversity means to them before learning that Mina had successfully found all the clues hidden around the school and had won the Diversity Day Scavenger Hunt.

The Abbey is a very special school for many reasons. Our diverse student body and our students’ openness to new experiences, cultures, and ideas is an important part of what makes our school such an exciting and lovely place to learn and work.