Buckswood celebrates world culture

The colourful event celebrates the culture, cuisine, costume and customs of the students’ home nations and raises money for Unicef at the same time.

This year’s event was the first to welcome local dignitaries who included Rye Town Crier Rex Swain, Hastings Mayor Alan Roberts and Hastings Council leader Jeremy Birch.

It saw 24 nations taking part, including Columbia, Kazakhstan, Spain, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Russia, Germany, Japan, Turkey, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Georgia, Great Britain, Mexico, Holland, Armenia, Italy, France, South Africa, Nigeria, China and the Yemen.

They all gave presentations about their countries and held a food stall selling culinary delights in aid of Unicef.

Delicacies on offer included German Currywurst, Japanese Sushi, South African BBQ, Dutch croquettes and of course the Great British fish and chips.

Buckswood Head of Languages Gilly Johnson, who organised the event, was thrilled with the effort the students had gone to, getting relatives to send items from abroad, ordering dishes from local restaurants, visiting local specialist food stores and rolling up their sleeves to make dishes to proudly share their culture with their contemporaries.

The food stalls raised £1,000 for Unicef, a children’s charity working to improve the lives of children and protect their rights around the world, with the ‘By the Seaside’ British theme stall proving most popular with their offerings of fish and chips, candy floss, cream soda and ice cream.

Headteacher Mark Redsell said: “Buckswood International Day is always a very special occasion at the school, one where we can celebrate our differences as one family together.

“I am very proud of the students and all the hard work Mrs Johnson and the students put in to raise a staggering amount for Unicef”.