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.

Exploring our family history can help us uncover amazing things about our family and ancestors and these stories often feature migration. Here is a helpful guide to help you begin to explore your family tree and the stories hidden within. How much do you know about your parents, grandparents or relatives? Do you have someone in your family who migrated somewhere? We have created some questions for you to ask your relatives. You will also find a family tree outline to print off and fill in! You can even pin stories, drawings and photos to illustrate it. Fill in the names and draw the connecting lines – or draw your own tree. We have also highlighted some great online resources to help you dig even further. In these times of social isolation, it is more important than ever to reach out to those you can’t see via phone or video chat. And being at home for an extended period of time is a great opportunity to find out more about your family and relatives. Tell us who you got in touch with and what type of technology you used to do it.

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.

What happened to the Kindertransport children? – This lesson is suitable for 11–14-year-old students. Through testimony, artefacts and memorials it introduces the history of the Kindertransport – a programme that rescued 10,000 children from the Nazis. It is suitable for use in a range of subjects – such as History, Art and Design, English, RE, PSHE, Citizenship.

Produced in partnership with The Harwich Kindertransport Memorial and Learning Trust, and with thanks to the BBC and The Wiener Holocaust Library.

In this lesson, your students will:
Learn about Kindertransportee Martha Blend and her autograph book
Hear what happened to arriving children who didn’t have foster families to go to through historic photos and a rare BBC audio recording of the children and young people themselves
Explore a new memorial currently in construction and hear from the sculptor himself

This lesson explores the stories of British people who took risks and showed great courage and determination in order to save the lives of Jewish people during the Holocaust. Each have now been awarded a medal as a ‘British Hero of the Holocaust’ by the UK government.

This activity would work well for secondary school students (Key stage 3 and 4 or equivalent) with some basic background knowledge of the Nazi persecution of Jews in the 1930s and the Holocaust. It will help them to make the connection between the Holocaust and Britain during the Second World War, and explore the role of rescuers and resisters.

Brick Lane has been described by many as the ‘heartland’ of the Bangladeshi community in Britain, representing five decades of the struggle to belong and be recognised as part of the global city of London and the wider multicultural nation. Perhaps the most visible testament to this presence is ‘Banglatown’ – the short stretch of Bangladeshi-owned curry restaurants, cafés and other retail spaces that crowd the southern end of Brick Lane.  The story of Bengali Brick Lane is a lens onto a vibrant but little-known history of the East End, of London, of Britain and its former empire – which is one strand in the tapestry of modern multicultural, post-imperial Britain. It is a story, too, of the street itself, and its iconic place within London and Britain’s history of migration.

Based on Kayra Martinez's guided art-making workshops that were borne from her work with youth in refugee camps, K-12 teachers in the UK, US, or EU typically begin with an introduction (appropriate to age and grade level) to their class on the refugee crisis that became most apparent in the EU and UK in/around 2015. The teacher will help students to discern terms, such as refugee, migrant, immigrant, asylee, and give context to who goes to a "refugee camp." Teacher shares the art-making projects that Kayra conducts with the refugee youth, and will show examples of that work—either with actual pieces of art or virtually. Utilizing visual thinking strategies (VTS), class discussions on the artwork is encouraged. Then, resources and time-permitting, students are given an opportunity to similarly create their own works of art by painting on canvas, either in the same or subsequent classes. Outcomes include deepened understanding of the refugee/migration process, greater self-reflection and perspective-taking, honed critical thinking and higher order thinking skills, creative expression, and often a sense of global citizenship. Teachers and their classes can choose to exhibit their work inside their own classroom, or more broadly with their school community or beyond.

Beginning with our early migration history, as our ancestors spread across a world where there were no borders, no nations, no ideas about who belongs where, the film moves through our more recent history of displacement. At the end, our shared human story is told by a young man seeking somewhere safe to live. On the way, we see that fear of  migrants has a long history, and that humans form communities where they care for one another, whether these are settled (rooted, like forest trees) or migrant (like birds). Implicit in the film is the understanding that, if we go back far enough, we find we are all actually related. In fact, we are all descended from people from all parts of the world, and we only need to go back 3,400 years to find the common ancestor of everyone alive today.

It can be a struggle to answer the inevitable question: ‘Where are you from?’ when you’re not quite sure. A young woman of mixed heritage searches for an answer by looking back over three generations of her family. Documents, family stories and of course the British staple of tea and biscuits help her figure out a way to reply.

A personal look at questions of identity, at a time where migration, political isolation and reclaiming history are hot topics. Is it important to look to your own past in order to better respond to wider issues present today?