The Windrush Foundation has produced an educational resource pack for teachers to help them talk about the journey of the Empire Windrush and the Windrush generation in an informed way. At Historycal Roots we are pleased to have played a small part in the material’s production. Now, as Arthur Torrington of the Foundation says, ‘every school, parent, and others should have a copy’. Well, Historycal Roots can’t quite achieve that (!) but we can play our part.
The pack contains a wealth of resources and can be found here:
WINDRUSH FOUNDATION – KEY STAGE 2 EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE PACK
The National Curriculum can no doubt sometimes feel like a straightjacket to teachers but it has always been a flexible tool with scope for imaginative professionals to bring elements of the black experience into many aspects of their lessons. Recent changes to the National Curriculum in History, and the prioritisation of Spiritual, Moral, Social, and Cultural (SMSC) development across Key Stages, have widened the opportunities for teaching students to understand and appreciate the range of peoples, from all places, who have journeyed to and helped to shape the British Isles.
Although our focus is on the Windrush generation there is of course a far wider context to the topic of immigration stories. We are aware of this excellent site that places the Windrush story within that much broader setting:
https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/information-for-teachers.html
As attitudes in the country become more polarised and small-minded nationalism seems to be on the rise, it is now more important than ever that the rich and diverse history of the peoples of the British Isles is better understood.