Journeys 🧳

Journeys

Our history topic focused around the theme ‘Journeys’

To make the learning relevant to us we first looked at what journeys we know, what makes different people go on different journeys and how we can classify them. We discussed everything from holidays with family or friends, for fun or necessity. 

Who was Walter Raleigh?

We went on a journey ourselves back to a time where Walter Raleigh embarked on journeys to discover new lands. We created a factfile about his life and ascertained that the journeys he took and many other explorers at that time, were journeys to discover and conquer.

How did Native American people record journeys?

As part of our woodland time we created journey sticks, that were used by Native Americans. Due to this natural link in our learning we researched a little about the way of life and created our own stories based around journeys.

Why did the Irish 3rd class passenger on the Titanic make the journey to America?

We moved through time to the Titanic and specifically focused on the 3rd class passengers and why they made the journey to America. We compared the difference in accommodation and reasons why the 1st class passengers may want to travel compared to the 3rd. From all we learnt, we came to the conclusion that the majority of the 3rd class passengers travelled in search of a better lifestyle, they travelled with hope.

How did Vera Schaufeld become a refugee?

Vera Schaufeld; a traveller in a very different way. Schaufeld was a refugee during WWII. We looked in depth at her photographs to find out about her life and how she became a refugee. We decided that her reason to take a journey wasn’t her decision at all, that she was forced to take a journey for her safety because of the circumstances.

Why did people sail on the Empire Windrush?

On 21 June 1948 the Empire Windrush arrived in the United Kingdom. We studied different sources including passenger lists and recordings of accounts from some passengers. We looked at reasons why different passengers travelled and the different emotions the passengers may have felt at the start, during and upon arrival but also afterwards during their life in the UK.

What makes refugees go on a difficult journey today?

Bringing it to modern day we discussed the differences between refugees in the past and now and what we can learn from our history. We talked very openly about different emotions while reading newspaper articles detailing some of the stories of refugees today and different push and pull factors they experienced when deciding to flee.