24.06.20 Year 5 and 6 Humanities - The Windrush Generation

hello years five and six i hope that you're all doing well keeping safe and doing lots of amazing online learning hello to the children in school as well i know you're doing really well this is a very special lesson an extra humanities lesson because there was a special day on monday of this week on the 22nd of june it is windrush day and i have prepared a lesson to teach you um all about the windrush generation who they were um what happened to them etc and i've learned quite a lot of new things from preparing the lesson and a lot of the resources and were given to me by mrs watson and somebody called genevieve bent shared those resources with mrs watson so i hope you enjoy the lesson and learn lots from it but a quick reminder before we get on to our learning to send your work from this lesson please to year 5 at grange.harrow.sch.uk if you're in year five and if you're in year six obviously to the year six address i cannot wait to see your work and there will be class chart points and shout outs for those children that put in lots and lots of effort okay so what you will need you will definitely need some paper something to write with a pen or pencil um you might need some coloring pencils or felt tips if you decide to decorate your work you will definitely need your reading and writing skills which i know you've been working really hard on and also your empathy and your imagination so you're going to have to put yourselves in the shoes of one of the windrush generation and empathize understand how they felt at a particular time okay and you will hopefully also be doing some imaginative writing so if you haven't got the paper and the pencil please go and get that now pause the video right so today is wednesday the 24th of june 2020 and we are going to be developing an understanding of what the windrush generation experienced so whilst i'm reading through the success criteria please can you copy down the date and the li success criteria i can explain who the windrush generation are i can explain why they came to england i understand what the windrush generation experienced whilst living in england and when i first came to grange many years ago i was working in year six and every year for the first few years we used to read a story um an autobiography really called coming to england written by a lady called floella benjamin and as soon as i thought of windrush this is the book that i thought of um so if you do get a chance to read it please do i'm not sure if it's still covered in year six um but i'm going to put an extract from it on our website by the end of the week as well um so pause the video if you need a bit more time and then we'll get on to our learning right what i'm going to do is play you a song called island in the sun by somebody called harry belafonte the lyrics are on the screen now and i want you to have a think what island is this song actually about a island where my people have toiled since time begun i may sail until you see [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all my days i will sing in praise of your forest waters your shining sand [Music] as morning breaks the heaven on high i lift my heavy load to the sky sun comes down with a burning glow tingles my sweat with the earth below okay so having a look at the words and also the pictures on the screen have a think about which island or islands in the sun you think harry belafonte is um singing about because that will give you a big clue about where the windrush generation originate from so think about for example it says the shining sand um that there is lots of sunshine in the final verse which i didn't play for you but it says i see a woman on bended knee cutting cane for her family what what is cane well done sugarcane now sugarcane grows in hot sunny places like the caribbean so harry belafonte is singing about islands such as jamaica and trinidad and others in the caribbean okay okay so now we've got a a picture of the empire windrush ship and can you recognize any of the flags at the top just note down your ideas on your piece of paper and take a moment to see if you can answer the four w's so what is this ship where is it going to and from can you think of a time period when this could be happening and why why are these people migrating from one place to another place okay so as i said at the beginning the 22nd of june is now annual wind rush day it's to mark the arrival of the hundreds of west indians to the uk aboard the empire windrush the big ship and remember the west indian people are from the caribbean okay so there's actually now a special day to mark this and we're going to learn why so we're going to learn who the windrest generation are why they're important and why do they matter because they've made a huge huge contribution to our society in england so the windrush generation were a group of people from the caribbean who were called by the british government to work and live in the uk they arrived in tilbury in essex aboard the empire windrush on the 22nd of june 1948. so see if you can do a little bit of maths exactly how many years ago would that have been there were around 800 young caribbean men and women who all arrived with dreams and goals for their mother country okay and this map just shows us the journey that they took so the caribbean islands are off the coast of america and they include jamaica trinidad bermuda and others so they sailed across the atlantic to england and they docked at essex in at tilbury okay and this happened as i said in 1948 there you can see some photographs from the ship why did they come over up until the early 1960s many of the caribbean islands and countries in africa asia and around the world were under british colonial rule they were part of the british empire now children in year six earlier this year we did some humanities learning about the british rule in africa and in india and this is another part of their empire the caribbean islands the caribbean was known as the british west indies which is where the term west indian comes from the queen was the head of state for all these countries and in 1948 the 1948 british nationality act was passed granting all members of the british empire citizenship and the right to live in the uk after two wars and the recent end of world war ii in 1945 the uk needed to rebuild its country and its economy so the british government advertised opportunities for employment which attracted many people to leave the caribbean for the uk so they were basically promised jobs all these people from the caribbean let's find out what happened so this is a picture of um parts of britain after the end of world war ii so we can see that there is a lot of rebuilding reconstruction needed and that's why lots of people were called from the caribbean to help with rebuilding the country and the economy so the empire windrush hmt empire windrush was originally a cruise ship called monte rossa used in germany in the 1930s and was also used as a transportation vessel in world war ii in 1948 empire windrush traveled from australia to london but it docked in kingston jamaica and after a newspaper advert promising employment in london people across the caribbean decided to embark upon this journey to the mother country there were almost 1 100 people aboard the windrush which arrived in tilbury on the 22nd of june 1948 for most of which britain was their final destination but what does the windrush generation mean windrush generation is the term used for the group of settlers which arrived from the british west indies between 1948 and the early 1960s so it wasn't just all those people that arrived in 1948 people kept coming throughout the 1950s and early 1960s now although we talk about the wind dress generation mainly about those on the ship windrush as i said many caribbean came afterwards as well and what this marked was the start of multicultural britain okay the britain that we all live in right now and the development of modern britain that we know today this is a poem by john agard called windrush child and i want you to take some inspiration from it because your task your first task in this lesson is going to be to to put yourselves in the shoes of somebody who was traveling on that windrush empire um ship from the caribbean to england so i'm going to read you the poem child behind you windrush child palm trees wave goodbye above you when dressed child seabirds asking why around you windrush child blue water rolling by beside you windrest child your windrush mum and dad think of storytime yard and mango mornings and new beginnings doors closing and opening will things turn out right at least the ship will arrive in mid-summer light and you windrest child think of grandma telling you don't forget to write and with one last hug walk good walk good and the sea's will wheel carries on spinning and from that place england you tell her in a letter of your windrush adventure stepping in a big ship not knowing how long the journey or that you're stepping into history bringing your caribbean eye to another horizon grandmother's words your shining beacon learning how to fly the kite of your dreams in an english sky windrush child walking good walking good in a mind opening meeting of snow and sun so there you can infer lots of the feelings um of children because there was definitely children on the ship as well um the things that they were leaving behind and the things that they were coming towards so what i want you to do sorry i got a little bit cut off there what i would like you to do is listen to a song coming up on the next slide as it's going to help you understand more about why the people from the caribbean were keen to come to england the song is called london is the place for me and it's a 1948 calypso song by aldwin roberts roberts under his calypso stage name was called lord kitchener and he sang the first two standards like the first two verses of this song on camera for reporters upon arrival at tilbury docks on the hmt empire windrush [Music] is [Music] london [Music] well city me [Music] to live in london you are rarely comfortable [Music] because their english people are very [Music] much [Music] when you have nothing to [Music] okay so your windrush task 1 imagine that you were one of those people embarking on empire windrush leaving for the uk create a short piece which describes your feelings and thoughts about leaving your home in the caribbean for the uk what are your hopes and dreams what might you miss about home so use the poem by john agard the windrush child and also the lyrics from the song by lord kitchener to give you some ideas also think about any of your own experience that you and your family might have had moving from your home country to england you have complete freedom to be creative write a poem a letter or a diary entry you could even make a short video or draw a picture with speech or thought bubbles now children this doesn't need to be a really long piece of writing okay because there's another writing task coming at the end i'd rather you really focus on the quality of your writing or your drawing with the speech and thought bubbles and i cannot wait to see that so pause the video now decide what you're going to do remember if it's a letter or a diary entry remember all the features of that type of writing that i'm sure you've learned about in your english lessons um and then i'll see you back for part two of this lesson well done everybody okay so welcome to part two how were the windrush generation welcomed the arrival of windrush and the immigrants was big news many newspaper reporters greeted them to take pictures of the arrivals and interview some of them however members of parliament mps complained after the windrush arrival urging for controls on immigration the british people were also not happy to see so many black people in their country and this marked the start of difficulty ahead for the windrush generation for the right to stay for all descendants and close family of the windrush generation a hostile environment the windrush generation were not welcomed by the british citizens they were racially abused refused housing refused employment harassed by the police bullied in schools by students and teachers and made to feel like unwanted illegal aliens they were refused all these basic human rights because they were black many of the settlers were forced to live in the underground shelters that were built for the war such as the clapham shelter so you can see there that it was completely different to what the people and the windrush generation had hoped they would find in the uk in 1968 the race relations act was passed making it illegal to discriminate against someone because of their race ethnicity or nationality this followed on from the race relations act 1965 which only addressed discrimination in public places so you can see there that the law was changed so that it was actually illegal to discriminate against someone because of their race ethnicity or nationality now this is a really important thing to understand how did the windrush generation contribute to the uk almost all the adults who arrived over the number of years had vocations trades and skills that made them highly employable a vocation is a job like being a doctor or a nurse or a teacher and these people from jamaica many of them were nurses electricians seamstresses that means dressmakers woodworkers um and so much more so after the race relations act in 1968 they were able to find more employment so part of their situation began to improve especially in london because london had become increasingly diverse and the economy began to grow more and more so there you can see some of the immigrants taking on jobs as nurses and medical professionals as um carpenters shoemakers their impact despite the hardships and struggled they faced the resilience optimism and perseverance that these people had made a huge impact on the british society and even now in the corona virus crisis many of our nhs workers are immigrants people from different countries who have come with their skills to help us in britain sound systems sound systems were a cheaper alternative to live music and they were played on the streets around the island of jamaica as caribbean people moved to britain in larger numbers they brought the sound system along with them they weren't welcome at traditional clubs and could not hear the music that they loved so parties were set up locally in houses or private spaces and reggae calypso scar and lovers rock music of sound systems were enjoyed and an important part of all of this is notting hill and some of you might have heard of the notting hill carnival so it says as areas such as ladbroke grove became more and more inhabited and influenced by west indian people racial tensions between white british and west indians increased in 1958 following the racially motivated killing of an antiguan man kelso catrain racial riots broke out in notting hill these were called the 1958 notting hill riots when it said antiguan man that means someone that comes from the island of antigua another one of the caribbean islands claudia jones a trinidadian woman and notting hill resident came up with the idea of recreating a small smaller scale version of the now world famous trinidadian carnival so trinidad another one of the caribbean islands this was to try to bring together the different communities of london what started off as a small scale and indoor carnival party has now grown to be the biggest street festival in europe okay so you can see this sort of early beginnings of the notting hill couple and then getting a bit closer to the present day okay amazing costumes i've been to this carnival once and it really is amazing they have a children's day brixton brixton and notting hill ladbroke grove had the largest inhabitants of black caribbean migrants brixton is well known for being a hub of the windrush community from the food market selling caribbean foods to the sound system and record shops to the community centers such was the influence of the windrush generation on brixton that in 1998 the area outside of brixton's tate library was renamed windrush square there it is there and there's bob marley very famous singer visiting brixton there's the sound system right your final task today now that you have more information of what the windrush generation actually experience pretend that you are one of them and write a letter back home to your family in the caribbean explaining what it was really like to live in england did living in england meet your expectations were you able to find work what difficulties did you encounter what did you miss most about home were you still able to enjoy some aspects of caribbean culture whilst living in the uk so think about the notting hill carnival there and in next week's lesson we're going to learn a bit more about what happened more recently in 2017 the wind rush scan well done everybody i know i've thrown a huge amount of information at you but i wanted to show you kind of both parts of what the windrush generation experienced reminded there please please please send your work to the email addresses cannot wait to see it um have a great rest of the week stay safe and if you've got any questions please ask well done everybody bye for now