Cultural Education

At St Bartholomew’s, we strive to provide children with a range of opportunities to develop their own understanding of culture, the arts and run many endeavors as a supplement to our curriculum.

The following are snapshots of what we do to encourage an excellent cultural education and develop the cultural capital of all of our pupils:

A key emphasis on black history, which we are currently embedding throughout our wider curriculum, including through history topics.
Visits weekly to our amazing new school library to promote a wider love of reading.
Trips to a range of local museums and areas of importance in our local area.
Art lessons are taught in half term topics across school. Every year group has a focus on drawing and painting and two other areas of art.
DT lessons are also taught in half term blocks, with every year group having a focus on cooking and two other areas on a whole school cycle.
The school offers a wide range of sports clubs, to support the child’s wider development.
There are a range of exciting trips to areas of historical interest – Armley Mills, Temple Newsam, local parks, farms, The Royal Armories and many others!
Year groups put on a Christmas performance for parents, peers and residents from the local care homes. We also have a range of children who regularly visit the local care homes to hear stories from the residents and play games with them.
Music tuition is a central part to our music curriculum, including recorders, ukuleles and glockenspiels. Our music leaders also run keyboard and guitar clubs, purchased using music grants, which can be loaned to pupils each week. We also have various school choirs.
Many year groups also enter a range of writing competitions, lots of which have been published in various books. We also have a book week, where children get to work with a range of authors.
As a school, we highly value the worth of books. Each child gets their own reading book, which they borrow and return. Older children also have a book they read for pleasure from our school library.
We get the children involved in a range of charitable days, raising money for various good causes.
In 2023 and 2024, we have organized trips to the theatre for all of our LKS2 classes.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Leeds Playhouse Trip

Class 7 thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Leeds playhouse to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. What an incredible cultural experience!

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Cultural Outfits

Patric shared with us the practices and traditional dress of his Coptic Egyptian Church. Sukaina, Ahmed and Aahil looked very smart in their traditional Pakistani dress. Dorota and Michelina celebrated traditional Polish outfits and customs. Ethan thinks his heritage might be Roman, the natural enemy of Mr. Emerson’s pan-Celtic people. We also learnt how to say hello and how are you in every one of the 12 languages represented in our class - Slovakian, Polish, Yoruba, Urdu, Portuguese, Arabic, Latin and many more!

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Various Activities

Class 11 have gone all out today for cultural day. We have learnt a variety of ways of saying hello, made and coloured the flag from their country of origin and many have worn their traditional countries clothes, or worn something to represent it. The children have been amazed at the variety of cultural and countries we have in our class.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Parathas, Poems & Self Portraits

Class 7 loved cultural week. They read Eyes that Kiss in the corner, and watched the author discuss her upbringing and how she felt underrepresented. Pupils then created self-portraits thinking about how amazing their features were. Pupils created acrostic poems about diversity and being proud of their roots. We looked into each child’s culture, thinking about what it is like, the weather, what people wear, what they eat. Pupils enjoyed sharing stories of their own culture or learning about it through research. The children enjoyed making parathas and they all ate them, including the cauliflower stuffing. Finally on Friday pupils got to chare their traditional dress and it was beautiful to see how proud they all were.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Africa Travel Poster

We have enjoyed learning about Africa as part of our cultural activities for cultural week. Our task was to make a ‘Zine’ or a travel poster about a chosen country in Africa.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Sri Lanka

Class 9 were very excited when Senu and his family came in to give us a presentation about his heritage and culture. He was so confident during his presentation and also showed us how to make lanterns! We now know lots about Sri Lanka.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Culture Week

All of year 4 walked up to the local mosque as part of cultural week. All the children enjoy seeing what the inside of a mosque looks like and meet the Imam. He gave us a talk about the Islamic religion and answered lots of the children’s questions. The whole school had a culture dress day, it was great to see so many different types of cultural clothing!

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Making Parathas

As part of Cultural Week, year 2 made stuffed parathas with Mrs Sagoo. They were delicious!

Curriculum - Cultural Education - African Workshop

Class 4 enjoyed taking part in the African mask and dance workshop. They learned about African masks, why they are used, the patterns and what the colours mean. They then painted their own African masks. The children also enjoyed learning an African dance and using their masks as props when performing it.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Cannon Hall Farm Trip

Class 4 enjoyed their trip to Cannon Hall Farm. We saw lots of different farm animals and learned lots of interesting facts about them. Class 4 also enjoyed looking at the reptiles and nocturnal animals they had at the farm. We enjoyed playing in the different play areas in the farm.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Arooj Project

Following on form the work completed as part of the Arooj Project, one of our year 2 children enjoyed the story so much she decided to dress up as the main character for World Book Day.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Lunar New Year

Last week we have enjoyed learning all about Lunar New Year. We discussed the traditions and celebrations that people carry out when celebrating Lunar new year, such as cleaning the home, decorating, family meals, dragon dances and fireworks. The children enjoyed making their own lanterns, preparing the home corner and having a go at doing a dragon dance.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Theatre Trip

Class 8 had a brilliant time at Leeds playhouse seeing the musical version of Oliver Twist. We knew the story from our English work on Charles Dickens and loved the songs. What an unforgettable cultural experience!

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Black History Month (Dina Asher-Smith)

As part of black history month we have looked at inspirational black females. We created some art work of Dina Asher-Smith to celebrate her achievements.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Armley Mills Museum Visit

Class 11 have had a lovely day at Armley Mills. They experienced what it was like in a Victorian classroom. They were all given Victorian names and wore outfits appropriate to the time. They had to abide by the strict Victorian rules and were punished if not. The teacher made them pay their 1 pence, say the school prayer, recite their times tables, took them out for physical exercise and practice their handwriting using ink and dip pen.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Armley Mills Museum Trip

Class 10 have had a fantastic day at Armley Mills. We learned how Victorian children were treated at school - and we are definitely grateful that we are not Victorians! Some of us had punishment such as wearing the Dunce’s hat or having to put our nose towards the chalk board. We also did drills outside and experienced what it was like to write with a quill and ink.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Black History Month

Class 10 had a great time working collaboratively to create fact files about Maggie Alderin-Pocock for Black History month. Maggie is a doctor of mechanical engineering and a space scientist. We talked about how she is a fantastic role model and how she has shown that you can do anything you put your mind to.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Armley Mills Trip

Class 9 visited Armley Mills Industrial Museum and enjoyed showing off our maths skills to our new teacher. We also enjoyed finding out how Victorian children would exercise at school. It’s very different to our P.E lessons today. In the afternoon we looked around the museum.

Curriculum - Cultural Education - Armley Mills Museum

Class 8 had a brilliant time at Armley Mills. We learnt what it was like to go to school in Victorian Leeds. We wrote with ink pens and slate boards, learnt the importance of a healthy body and learnt the value of preserving the social order and knowing our place

Curriculum - Cultural Education - West Yorkshire Playhouse

Class 10 had a great afternoon at West Yorkshire Playhouse. We visited each of the three theatres, had a look inside the rehearsal rooms and even had a peek inside the costume department. We then took part in a fun workshop recreating the story of Macbeth.