Christmas Traditions in Europe
As part of our extended curriculum and international partnership with School 12 in ElblÄ…g, Poland, our Language Ambassadors led two Collective Worship sessions—one for Key Stage 1 and one for Key Stage 2.
These sessions aimed to deepen pupils’ understanding of the diversity within Christian traditions across Europe, focusing on Christmas celebrations in different countries. The Language Ambassadors—pupils selected for their multilingual skills and cultural knowledge—researched Christmas customs from Poland, Germany, Italy, and Spain, drawing from their own backgrounds and information from our partner school. They explored traditions such as Polish Christmas Eve Wigilia, German Christmas markets, Italian nativity scenes, and Spanish La Misa del Gallo (Midnight Mass). Each session included storytelling, song, and interactive elements, tailored to the age group’s understanding.
Afterwards, the Language Ambassadors went back out on their lunch time duties, playing games and interacting with KS1 children to support their language development with new things to chat about: Christmas traditions in Europe!
Pupil voice:
'I can't believe that we all do Christmas in such exciting ways. I will be listening to my dog all night on Christmas Eve to hear it speak!' Phoenix Y5
'I like that everyone understands each other's Christmas ideas. We do Christmas on 6th January and we are usually back in school then so I feel like my friends understand me better.' Damjana Y5
'My favourite part of Christmas was going to look at the fish we have in the bath tub when I was little. That was until I understood what happened to it!' P Y3
'I'm always the first one to spot the first star at Christmas in my family!' A Y2.
'Its interesting how we share the same Bible stories but because of our culture and heritage, we all do such different things at Christmas but it's pretty much the same: food and presents.' Minnie Y6
SDG 4 (Quality Education) SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions)
12 children led this to 420 children