The Leamington Branch of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (UK) recently held its annual Teacher Appreciation Day, known as Shikshak Vandan Diwas, bringing together children, parents, teachers, and members of the local community for a celebration the branch has run every year since 2021. HSS (UK) is a voluntary cultural and community organisation that promotes personal development, family values, community service, and active citizenship across the UK, helping children and families stay connected to Hindu and Indian cultural heritage while encouraging them to contribute positively to wider society. This year’s event took on a new format, weaving together physical activity, cultural performance, storytelling, and community interaction.

The programme opened with a demonstration of yoga, physical exercises, and traditional games, highlighting physical wellbeing, discipline, teamwork, and concentration, before the children’s group took over with a lively musical performance. The highlight of the day was a role-play the children put together themselves, exploring the importance of teachers, gratitude, respect, and the traditional bond between teacher and student, introducing the idea that education stretches beyond academics into character, discipline, values, wisdom, and personal growth.

Eight schools across Leamington and Warwick were invited, and 12 teachers from seven of them came along. The children welcomed them with traditional gestures of respect flowers and a tilak, the small forehead mark used in Indian culture to express goodwill before handing over homemade cards and personal messages of thanks. Some students went further, bowing to touch their teachers’ feet, a gesture that may be unfamiliar to many in the UK but is a longstanding Indian way of showing humility and gratitude toward elders and teachers.

The teachers themselves seemed genuinely moved, several calling it a memorable experience they’d hold onto. For many, it was also their first real look at what the children get up to through HSS (UK) and a few drew a direct line between that and the discipline, respect, cooperation, and compassion they already noticed in these students back at school. For the organisers, that connection was the real point: proof that the cultural and character-building work done outside the classroom was showing up inside it too.

Once the formal programme wrapped up, everyone settled into a more relaxed gathering over samosas and tea/food and hospitality being, as ever, one of the simplest ways to bring people together in Indian culture. It gave families and teachers room to keep talking long after the speeches ended, and helped turn a formal event into something more personal. In total, 96 people turned out, a record for the Leamington branch.

More than anything, the day was a reminder of something fairly universal: teachers shape the next generation, and they don’t always get thanked for it. By blending Indian tradition with a genuine celebration of gratitude, community, and shared culture, HSS (UK)’s Leamington branch gave its children a chance to say thank you properly and gave local teachers a small window into the world their students come from outside school.