Cultural Week at Cobham Hall was a delicious and entertaining journey all over the world as the school’s eclectic 
mix of nationalities celebrated the school’s international ethos and offered an insight into their homelands.
With 50 percent British girls and the other half of the student population joining the school from over 30 different countries, a celebration of internationalism at Cobham Hall is quite an event.
Each day last week, the school kitchen took inspiration from a different country, and girls and staff enjoyed paella, carbonara, coq au vin, Chinese chicken noodle stir fry and Indian curry as well as many international desserts.
In assemblies throughout the week, the school learned about various different countries with most presentations formed from first-hand experiences of girls who live there.
The English Speaking Union Scholarship student, Erika, raised in the USA, was animated and amusing as she talked about her culturally diverse family, Year 7 girls danced to “I like to Move it” from the film Madagascar, Year 12 girls Sophie and Flora presented Switzerland vs.
Austria and Clara and her team took everyone on a trip to Guatemala while Pre-IB students Angelique and Milene talked about their home countries of Vietnam and Angola.
The week ended in spectacular style with an international dress tag day on Friday which exhibited some fantastic outfits and traditional dress as well as a few interesting representations of some countries in clothing.
Money raised at the tag day will be donated to charities chosen by girls in September. Each year, girls choose a number of charities to support and all money raised during the year through a variety of events is split between them.
This year girls have chosen Cancer Research UK, a Jamaican orphanage and the British Lung Foundation as their charities.
Cobham girls have often lived in several different countries before beginning their education at the school. The international ethos along with a culture of acceptance and celebration of different national traditions make Cobham Hall attractive to internationally minded families.
With an increasingly globalised workplace, an education with an international edge provides Cobham girls with a good grounding for their future careers. Just over half of all girls at Cobham are boarders.
Cultural Week is also part of the school’s commitment to its Round Square ethos of experiential education with one of the central Round Square philosophies being the celebration of internationalism and exploration of different cultures.
Cobham’s Round Square representative Miss Caro, who co-ordinated the week-long event, said Cobham Hall was predisposed to celebrating internationalism well.
“We have an advantage in celebrating internationalism because we have many nationalities at the school. We can get more of an authentic flavour of many different nationalities,” she said.
“We allow and encourage our girls to celebrate their traditions.”
“They all live together happily, learning from each other and they respect each other’s ideas, nationalities, beliefs and faiths.”