Younger boys explored their own family histories during a visit by a team from London’s Migration Museum, while a special session helped older pupils with their GCSE Geography studies.
Before the visit organised by the Geography department, the whole of Year 8 had been asked to interview family members about their own migration stories and journeys.
Then, as part of workshops taking place throughout the morning, the boys used hi-tech ArcGIS mapping tools on their 1:1 tablet computers, mapping all the journeys made by the people they had interviewed.
Head of Geography Chris Butler said: “Many of our pupils’ parents have direct or indirect experience of the process, and we want the boys to celebrate this diversity and include their family and friends through their interviews and experiences within their communities.”
The session for the Year 8 boys ended with a Geospatial analysis of their journeys (using ArcGIS).
There was a session for Year 11 historians in the afternoon, with the boys studying the history of migration as a unit in their GCSEs.
Migration features as a topic in the AQA examination board’s GCSE syllabus’s sections on The changing economic world and on Urban issues and challenges.
The Migration Museum was founded by Barbara Roche, a former Labour Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration.
She believed that Britain’s migration history should be placed at the heart of the national story, arguing for the establishment of the museum based on her time as Minister and on visits to similar museums in other parts of the world – notably Ellis Island in New York.
Since 2020, the Migration Museum has been based in Lewisham Shopping Centre in south London. It has received planning permission for a permanent home in the City of London, close to Aldgate and the Tower of London, which is due to open in 2027.
This will be allied to a network of venues across the UK, and to a digital storytelling platform.