Teaching Resources Lesson Plans
Created by teachers connected to the Our Migration Story project, the lesson plans, schemes of work and resources below have been designed to supplement the case studies and histories presented on this site. All are yours to use and modify. If you yourself might be interested in providing lesson plans or other materials for Our Migration Story, please contact us.
A lesson on the early settlement of Jewish people in Britain. Focuses on the period from the invitation of Jewish merchants in 1070 to the expulsion of the Jewish people from England in 1290. Includes an activity around the poet Meir ben Elijah’s ‘Put a Curse on My Enemy’.
This presentation supports the ‘Jewish people in early Britain’ lesson. It contains questions, maps and a timeline activity.
This handout supports the lesson ‘The Jewish people in early Britain’ and gives an overview of eras and locations of settlement and the tension between Jewish people, the Church and the Crown.
This lesson offers an overview of Early Modern migration. It gives pupils the chance to understand patterns in migrants’ experiences across this period.
Lesson materials for ‘Migration to, from and within Britain 1500-1750’. Includes tables, timelines and a matching exercise.
Covers the experiences of Huguenot immigrants to Britain using a comparison of two Our Migration Story resources: Thomas Papillon’s 'Advertisement' and the poem ‘Canary-birds naturaliz’d in Utopia’.
Lesson materials for ‘Differences in attitudes towards Huguenot immigrants’. Includes source-analysis sheets.
Handout to support ‘Differences in attitudes towards Huguenot immigrants’ lesson.
Lesson to compare the lives of Peter Lobengula and James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw. Requires access to the Internet to read about the two men’s lives. Students are asked to consider the extent to which the two men had ‘agency’.
Material to support ‘Black migration to Britain, 1750-1900’.
Dr Sadiah Qureshi's article 'Why I Describe Myself as a Historian of "Displayed Peoples", Not "Human Zoos"' to support 'Black migration to Britain' lesson.
Using Erskine Nichol’s painting ‘The Emigrants’ as a starting point, this lesson asks pupils to understand the relationship between Ireland and Great Britain and consider representations of the Irish in the nineteenth century.
Materials to support ‘Irish migrants in 19th-century Britain’ including a reproduction of Erskine Nichols’ painting.
The aim of this lesson is for pupils to identify the similarities and differences in impact of World War I and II on immigration and immigrants. Tasks are to be completed with access to the Our Migration Story website. Please note: This lesson is designed to be delivered after pupils have studied up to the end of World War II, and before they begin on post-war/Windrush-generation immigration.
This handout offers a brief overview of the migrant groups who moved to Britain during each World War. For use with 'The impact of war' lesson.
Tasks and resources for ‘The Impact of war on immigration in the 20th Century’.
Designed as a two-lesson end-of-unit overview, ‘Change and continuity in immigration 1000-2010’, asks pupils to consider patterns in migration to Britain over the last 1,000 years. Pupils will need access to the Our Migration Story website to find sources they think best encapsulate continuity and change. The linked lessons end with a debate.
Resources for ‘Change and continuity in immigration 1000-2010’, including tables and a debate prompt.
Designed by Justice to History, this programme for a series of lessons draws on the Our migration story articles ‘Migrating home: “Mixed” children and the return of the Nabobs of India’, ‘Student migrants: Cornelia Sorabji at Oxford’ and ‘Families divided: the campaign for Anwar Ditta and her children’ to explore the topic of women who migrated to Britain in the age of Empire.
Designed by Justice to History, this programme for a series of lessons draws on the Our Migration Story articles ‘Making peace: scandinavian migrants and King Alfred's “fyrd”’, ‘The plight of the Huguenots: Thomas Papillon's advertisement’, ‘From slavery to freedom: J. Gronniosaw’s “narrative”’, and ‘The East London Mosque’ to explore the topic of religion and migration.
Designed by Justice to History, this programme for a series of lessons draws on the Our Migration Story articles ‘Becoming English: letters of denization’, ‘The plight of the Huguenots: Thomas Papillon's advertisement’, ‘A London slum: Irish migration and its threat’, and ‘The lascars: Britain’s colonial sailors’ to explore the topic of employment and migration.
Designed by Justice to History, this programme for a series of lessons draws on the Our Migration Story articles ‘Huguenot Silk Weavers in Spitalfields’, ‘Blood Libels, Castration and Christian Fears: Opposition to Jewish Citizenship’, ‘The First Indian MP: Dadabhai Naoroji’, and ‘Murder in Notting Hill’ to explore the topic of hostile responses to migrants to Britain.
This 16-page guide offer advice from Oxfam on how to tackle potentially 'controversial' or difficult subjects in the classroom. It is useful for all teachers of migration.
Drawing on their many years of experience delivering lessons on the Holocaust and the world wars, this short overview from the Imperial War Museum gives simple, practical advice on how to teach difficult periods in history.
This lesson offers Key Stage 3 pupils a survey of migration flows to Britain from the fifth century to the present. It requires computer access and invites pupils to consider their ideas of who came to Britain and when and weigh those thoughts against historical patterns.
Lesson materials to support ‘Migration to Britain 400AD-2010’.
Maps for ‘Migration to Britain 400AD-2010’ lesson.
A Key Stage 3-aimed lesson on the movement of Gypsy and Roma people to Britain, which offers students the opportunity to consider the Egyptians Act (1530) and the history of Travellers. Centred on Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month, it calls on students to research these communities and design a presentation about their histories.
Resources for the ‘Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Migration’ lesson. Includes a research task and a facsimile of the Egyptians Act.
A copy of an extract from the Egyptians Act (1530) for use in the classroom.
This lesson is designed to introduce/revise the concept of ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors in migration and enable comparison between pre- and post-war migration to Britain. Requires Internet access.
Handout for starter task on ‘Post World War II Migration to Britain’ to revise migrant groups in Britain before 1945 and their reasons for migration.
Timeline activity for ‘Post World War II Migration to Britain’. Enables pupils to plot groups that came to Britain post-1945 and situate them along a push/pull axis.
Resources for ‘Post World War II Migration to Britain’ lesson, including hyperlinks for Internet research task.
This KS3 lesson gives a brief overview of the history of ethnic minority MPs. It begins with the story of Dadabhai Naoroji and continues forward into the present, offering pupils the opportunity to reflect on changes in representation over time.
This file contains the main resources needed for the KS3 ‘Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Members of Parliament’ lesson, including web links and questions for activities.
This graph supports the ‘Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Members of Parliament’ and enables students to track elections and representation over time.
