International Week 2026

The second International Week to be held under the auspices of Head of Modern Foreign Languages, Victoria Dovaston, provided an opportunity to celebrate cultural diversity, encourage cross cultural understanding, strengthen identities and create a sense of unity across the whole school community. From Monday 9^th to Friday 13^th February a variety of events and activities were enjoyed by students eager to participate.

The week kicked off with an international edition of the weekly tutor quiz, testing knowledge of global current affairs. This quiz was followed another head scratcher on Thursday with the Belonging Ambassadors sharing an International Week competition for PSHE won by Jack Sims’ tutor group for the juniors and Kate Johnson’s tutor group for the seniors.

Our Oakview restaurant took our tastebuds on a journey across the continents this week with the menu spanning across South and North America, Africa, Asia, Europe and an ‘Around the World’ Fish and Chip Friday! Illy (Lower Sixth) remarked: “I think experiencing the different foods that has given us a taste of the different cultures has been my favourite part of the week!”. Some of the highlights included beef lagarto with Chimichurri dressing (Brazil), jerk chicken (the Caribbean), spicy potato, red onion and cabbage (Bolivia), rolex Ugandan Roll, Classic Tunisian Fried Eggs and Tomato, lamb tagine (Morocco), harissa chicken (Algeria) and a beautiful summer pudding yoghurt cake (Canada). The Oakview restaurant experience was enhanced by a musical interlude on Wednesday lunchtime by our talented Sixth Form vocalists accompanied by a guitar.

With the fifteen-day Chinese New Year festival falling over International Week the boarders in Reckitt House were delighted to celebrate family, luck and new beginnings by sharing a traditional Chinese meal on Wednesday evening. The girls also had the opportunity to paint banners in Chinese characters in recognition of 2026 as the Year of the Horse representing energy, confidence and freedom.

For many the highlight was Thursday’s international dress day. Ryan (Lower Sixth explained: “The best thing about International Week has been the clothes that we got to wear. It represents our different identities. Some people have a mix and match from people who have multinational backgrounds, it really helps us. Especially in Collect when I look around the room, it’s really colourful and I really like that.”

Thursday also provided a chance for our Year 10 GCSE Food Tech students to craft a dish from the country of their heritage, showcasing their culinary skills but also sharing the flavours and textures of their national dishes. There was a wide variety of food from French crème brulee, souvlaki from Greece, chorizo rice from Spain, victoria sponge and sausage rolls from England and chapati from India.

The closing Collect of the week reminded the community to reflect on the nature of our school’s international community. Isabelle (Year 11) Isabelle (Year 10) recited a poem that she had written entitled ‘Many Languages, One Song’ and the presentation offer a quotation from Robert Alan: “Cultural differences should not separate us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit all of humanity.” Victoria concluded: “It’s been really good; KS3 and KS4 have been undertaking an International Week Challenge where we’re looking at culture in the different languages that we study and also those that we don’t at Leighton Park. I think that our students have really enjoyed International Week and I hope that they’ve learnt something too!”

Taylor (Lower Sixth) agreed saying: “We’ve seen all the cultures come together within the same community. We get to embrace our culture and teach other people about it. It’s very important that we become global citizens, not just knowing your own culture but learning about other people’s cultures as well.”

See more International Week photos in our online album.