£5.00 (inc. VAT)
KS: Upper KS2
Year Group: Year 6
Literary Theme: Migration & Movement
Author(s): Benjamin Zephaniah
Thought bubble, informal letter, poem, diary entry, advice
Persuasive pitch to the local council
15 session, 3 weeks
This is a 15-session planning sequence for Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah. Children begin by examining a range of historical evidence relating to HSS Empire Windrush’s arrival in Britain from the Caribbean and consider the motivations of those onboard for coming to the UK. Working through the story, they uncover a timeline of Jamaica’s history alongside the experiences of those journeying to Britain after the Second World War. Children will write an airmail letter from the main character, Leonard, to his dad who has travelled ahead to Manchester, as well as exploring his emotions in a diary entry and a set of advice to other arrivals. There will be the chance for children to examine and perform the poem Windrush Child by John Agard before writing their own version based on events in the story. The sequence culminates in children writing a pitch to the local council to erect a new monument to commemorate the Windrush generation. Teachers may wish to link History and PSHE sessions alongside to allow children time to explore themes in more detail.
In this heart-stopping adventure, Benjamin Zephaniah shows us what it was like to be a child of the Windrush generation.
Leonard is shocked when he arrives with his mother in the port of Southampton. His father is a stranger to him, it’s cold and even the Jamaican food doesn’t taste the same as it did back home in Maroon Town. But his parents have brought him here to try to make a better life, so Leonard does his best not to complain, to make new friends, to do well at school – even when people hurt him with their words and with their fists. But how can a boy so far from home learn to enjoy his new life when so many things count against him?
Windrush, Caribbean, black history, journeys, migration, poetry, performance poems
A Spelling Seed is available for Windrush Child.
This is a three-session spelling seed for the book Windrush Child by Benjamin Zephaniah. Below is the coverage from Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum 2014.
Spelling Seeds have been designed to complement the Literary Curriculum by providing weekly, contextualised sequences of sessions for the teaching of spelling that include open-ended investigations and opportunities to practise and apply within meaningful and purposeful contexts, linked (where relevant) to other areas of the curriculum and a suggestion of how to extend the investigation into home learning.
Spelling Seeds work alongside the texts within the Literary Curriculum and, as such, will also reflect the suggested number of weeks spent on a text, as well.
appreciate, community, determined, equipped, familiar, foreign, identity, recognise
Words ending in -ant, -ance / -ancy
Endings which sound like /ʃəl/(–cial or –tial)
View Windrush Child Spelling Seed
