Written by Siyu Zhang with photos from Siyu Zhang and Rebeca Villarroel Altamirano (Festival Interns – Digital content creators)
Newcastle Bangladeshi Association hosted pupils from Broadwood Primary School, St Joseph’s RC Primary School and St Paul’s CE Primary School on 26th March for a special day of celebration on the anniversary of Bangladesh’s Independence Day (1971).
This event was one in our series of world languages and culture events delivered as part of our 2026 Express Yourself: North East Festival of Languages and was an opportunity to share and celebrate Bangladeshi culture, language and traditions with primary school children and teachers.
The Newcastle Bangladeshi Association has been established for over 40 years in the city and community members provided a carousel of interactive experiences at the centre to engage the children. Through interactive activities, pupils explored different aspects of Bangladesh’s heritage while learning about the importance of language and community. The event created a welcoming space for children to discover a new culture, ask questions and celebrate diversity together.
- Amrin, a pupil at St Joseph’s Catholic School, performed “Amar vaiyer rokte rangano” a protest song to mark the Benagli Language movement in 1952.
- Children learned about Bangladesh and the local Bangladeshi community, culture and traditions and were able to ask questions about the language, the country, the food and the people.
- They were introduced to the Bengali alphabet and language.
- Pupils did some painting of lotus flowers and the Bangladeshi flag, as well as taking part in a quiz.
- The event ended with the raising of the Bangladeshi flag and signing their national anthem in honour of Bangladesh’s Independence Day.
For once we can learn about my culture. It is important to have events like this, so everyone knows about different cultures. It was fun.
I was happy and excited to share my culture with my friends.
Amrin, St Joseph’s Catholic School pupil – singing in Bengali
I enjoyed today because it was a nice opportunity to learn about other people’s lifestyles and how they live and their languages. The highlight was when we got to ask questions because that was like learning extras and stuff and also when the lady came around and started writing our names in Bangladeshi language. It’s good (to have events like this) because you’ve always been thinking about English and it’s better to know what you don’t know as a person. It was quite amazing.
Mayian, St Paul’s CE Primary School pupil
Children from were keen to ask questions and also share what they had learned on the day.
Members of Newcastle Bangladeshi Association share their knowledge and expertise
Our Bangladeshi culture is a 4000 years old, so we offered this event as part of the Festival to promote and share our culture with everyone. I felt that the event went very well. Our colleagues took a lot of time to prepare the event and we are grateful to all those who attended today.
Mohammed Zaman, General Secretary of Newcastle Bangladeshi Association
A huge thank you to all the members of the Newcastle Bangladeshi Association who helped prepare and deliver this event for local schools. It is so important that the diverse cultures that exist across the city and region are shared and celebrated and we are grateful to Mohammed Zaman and his colleagues for providing this event as part of the Festival.
Declan Baharini, Festival Coordinator and Chief Executive Officer, International Newcastle
Further information and links
The Newcastle Bangladeshi Association (NBA) is a charitable organization that has worked for the last 40 years in Newcastle upon Tyne. They work in partnership with local communities and stakeholders to advance education and to provide facilities for social welfare, including investing in developing community hubs.
NBA seeks to empower the local community, including deprived and vulnerable people, through the provision of sports, education, health, religious and cultural activities. They also deliver a range of events and activities throughout the year, including Muslim and Bengali celebrations.
- You can follow Newcastle Bangladeshi Association on facebook
About the author and photographers
Siyu Shang and Rebeca Villarroel Altamirano are two of our five Festival interns from Northumbria and Newcastle Universities producing articles and digital content for the Festival this year. The Festival wants to provide opportunities for students to gain real-world experience to help them in their future careers.
Siyu is studying at Newcastle University, doing a Masters in International Multimedia Journalism. She works as a broadcaster at Newcastle Universities radio study and writes for the student newspaper.
Rebeca is from Peru and is is a Media, Communications and Cultural Studies student at Newcastle University. She is passionate about advertising, marketing and PR and is developing her skills in content creation, social media and audience engagement.
The Festival is part-funded by the North East Combined Authority
