In August 1972, Ugandan dictator General Idi Amin served 90 days’ notice on around 70,000 Asians to leave Uganda. Each family was permitted to take only £55 and one suitcase per individual. 28,200 of these who held British passports were admitted to the UK. The then government set up the Uganda Resettlement Board to assist the expellees to find permanent homes, jobs and school places. Sixteen temporary resettlement camps around the country were set up and staffed in just six weeks. Charities, faith groups, campaigning organisations and private individuals in their thousands stepped forward to provide much needed support in those critical early months. This extraordinary feat of cooperation has strong contemporary relevance. Fifty years on, British Ugandan Asians have excelled in many fields from business and finance to politics, science, and the arts. British Ugandan Asians at 50 is a programme of the India Overseas Trust. We have received funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to record, on film, the oral histories of people who were involved in the camps as residents, volunteers or paid staff. We have focused on three of the Board’s resettlement camps: Tonfanau in Wales, Stradishall in Suffolk and Heathfield in Devon.

This free, in-depth resource pack shines a spotlight on 400 years of British emigration – one of the largest movements of people in modern history, yet a history that is often overlooked. 

Who are the many millions who have departed these shores and why did they go? Can exploring their motivations help us better understand the motivations of people who arrive? What impact has this mass movement had on the world – and on Britain? Our resource pack features stories spanning four centuries – from Mayflower Pilgrims to Welsh emigrants to South America, Child migration schemes to the Windrush scandal.

This resource pack will be helpful to any student studying the impact of emigration from Britain; both on the countries people emigrated to, and on Britain itself. However, the resource pack is designed specifically for Key Stage 4 students studying GCSE History: AQA's ‘Migration, Empires and the Peoples’ unit. The pack was designed by David Cox and the Migration Museum, with input from AQA teachers and the board's History subject advisor.

The Departures: Understanding Emigration resource pack accompanies the Migration Museum’s Departures exhibition, but is designed to be used as a stand-alone resource, or in conjunction with a self-guided or facilitated learning visit to the exhibition. To find out more about organising a visit to Departures for your students, please contact our education manager Liberty Melly: liberty@migrationmuseum.org.

This set of six worksheets introduces secondary school teachers and students to six different genocides through a key date, the experiences of one person, and the story of one artefact. It can also be used in a non-school environment.

A set of suggested activities are included to help you explore these sheets with your students.

These worksheets are a flexible learning resource that can be used in a range of ways. They have been designed for use around Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place on 27 January each year. You could also use them as a series throughout the year on or near to the dates featured.

You might focus on one genocide at a time, or look at more than one worksheet in the same session. You might choose to focus on the featured people and learn about the experiences of survivors of different genocides side by side, or explore the whole collection of artefacts together as if in a museum. You could work with other departments to design a cross-curricular project.

Produced in partnership with Remembering Srebrenica and Waging Peace, and with thanks to USHMM, the Genocide Archive of Rwanda and featured survivors.

Renie’s journey – This is a flexible lesson plan aimed at 9–11-year-old learners. Your students will learn about Renie Inow, who came to Britain on the Kindertransport at the age of 10. You will read letters her parents sent her, and learn what the Kindertransport programme was, and why it was needed.

Students will practise reading, writing and comprehension, as well as being introduced to the history of the Holocaust in an age-appropriate way. This lesson is differentiated throughout for different abilities.