Education Resources and Lesson Plans

If you have young people who’d like to learn more about the global refugee crisis, and understand more about why people become refugees, we’ve put together some free resources to use and share.

Nursery and Primary School

Children under 5
- ‘Lawand’s Story’ - a Mr Tumble story about a boy from Syria

Key Stage 1 (age 5-7)
- Watch the video about Helping people feel at home

- Check out the Paddington books and film, and discuss how it might feel to arrive alone in a new country. Write a postcard or a letter from Paddington to Aunt Lucy, or try the suitcase activity - Paddington’s suitcase is full of marmalade sandwiches, but what are the most important things that you’d take in your suitcase if you had to
leave home?

Key Stage 2 (age 7-11)

- The Right to Safety Is A Human Right - video & activity sheets

- Imagine you have just moved into your home and neighbourhood. How would you feel? How might you want your new neighbours to welcome you?

Would you like a map of your local area? Try drawing it! Include favourite places you’d like to share with someone new to your area, as well as the places they’d need to know about – food shops, schools, libraries, playgrounds, doctors.

Check out BBC Bitesize activities for 7-11 year olds

- There are over 6,500 languages spoken around the world, many of which are spoken in the UK alongside British Sign Language, English, Gaelic, Scots, Ulster Scots and Welsh.
How might you write or say hello in new languages? Try using Google translate or look at languages using different alphabets.
You could create a colourful poster of different ways to say hello, and display it in the window. You never know who might pass by who’d understand!

- People in the UK are a mixture of different nationalities, of different faiths or of no faith. This can show in how we dress, where we worship or spend our time, and in our principles and how we live our daily lives.
Take a look at Jessica Souhami’s illustration of our freedom of belief. How many ways can you find people expressing their religion through what they’re wearing? Which buildings in the picture could be used for group prayer and worship?
People can choose to pray and worship privately, in small groups and in large groups. Look at the picture again - where in the picture could people choose to pray and worship?
Take a look at Class Clips to learn about some of the different religions followed here in the UK.

- Read one of the Paddington stories. What are your favourite moments? What parts are funny - what parts make you feel sad?

Write a letter from Paddington to his Aunt Lucy in Peru talking about what he likes and doesn’t like about being in London. Older children can talk about the story from other perspectives, such as Mr Brown, Mr
Gruber and Mr Curry.

Secondary School

Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14)

- Find a world map.

A lot of refugees will have to travel by foot over hundreds of miles of land, or sail in small boats across water. What would a route from one country to another look like? What obstacles and dangers lie ahead? Are there mountains? Are there unpredictable tides?

Can you see where most refugees come from?
67% of refugees come from just 5 countries: the Syrian Arab Republic or Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia. People leave these places because of fear of violence, conflict, or persecution - which could be for lots of different reasons. Can you think of what some of these reasons might be?

Where do refugees settle?
The main countries of asylum for refugees are: Turkey (3.4million people), Pakistan (1.4 million), Uganda (1.2 million), Sudan (1.1 million) and Germany (1.1 million). However, lots and lots of people will leave the towns and villages where they live, but stay in the same country.
Source

Who applies to live in the UK?
The highest number of applications to live in the UK are from Iran, Iraq, Eritrea, Pakistan and Albania. Refugees make up 0.26% of the population of the UK
Source

- Try watching the video What you know about patience

- Read Kazzum’s key facts for Refugee Week - and then take the quiz! (you can find the answers here)

Older Students

- Write to Alex Chalk to ask him why he voted to remove a requirement for ministers to seek
to negotiate an agreement with the EU to enable unaccompanied child refugees