From the Head of School

 Latin Food Day at ISA

I am probably the last generation in the UK to remember eating pizza for the first time, and to have considered it ‘foreign food’.  Although I had come across pots of powdered ginger and powdered garlic, I first came across roots and cloves when I left home and went to university.

In the past few decades the increasing diversity of UK diets is interwoven with the increasing diversity of our society.  Living in a diverse community is far more than being mutually tolerant - it is about mutual enrichment.  Food, the most apparent, is only the beginning.

This semester, the newly formed ‘language advocates’ student group have been busy promoting their languages and the cultures they are part of.  On Tuesday, they organised a ‘Latin Food Lunch’, working with ISA kitchen staff to make and serve dishes from all over central and south America.  

On Thursday many of these students were in kindergarten, promoting the Spanish language.  On Tuesday others will introduce preschoolers to Polish.  

When I first ate pizza as a child, I didn’t then know how to make it.  Similarly with garlic and ginger awareness was only a first stage.

It is not just about introducing children to different ways of doing things - we could show a movie or bring in a guest speaker for that.  It is important that students experience differences from fellow students - that diversity is part of the general experience of their school and their lives.  It isn’t hidden or merely tolerated, but something they engage with, that stimulates their curiosity and sense of possibility.

It is also wonderful for students to be able to celebrate their own language and culture.  Not to see it as something we have to make accommodations for but a positive and welcome part of the school.  

For this generation, wherever they are from, diversity is not a special event or an unusual dish: it’s routine.  ISA is the perfect place to celebrate that!