Lesson video

Hello, my name's Ms. Willow, and I'm going to be your teacher for today's lesson.

Today's lesson is called "The history of racism in Britain," and it fits into the unit "Communities: How can we show respect to people of different races and cultures?" During this lesson, we are going to be talking about discrimination, some sensitive content, and violence as well, so we recommend that for this lesson, you have an adult with you.

If at any point you do feel worried or uncomfortable, it's really important that you stop the lesson and that you speak to a trusted adult.

Okay, let's make a start.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe different groups who have immigrated to Britain and explain why racist myths about immigration are wrong.

Before we get started with today's lesson, we need to go over some ground rules.

These help to make sure that everyone feels safe and comfortable during today's lesson.

First of all, Laura reminds us that we need to listen to others.

This means that we're not going to interrupt other people if they're speaking.

Andeep reminds us that we need to respect each other's privacy.

This means that we're not going to ask anyone any personal questions as this can make some people feel uncomfortable.

Next, we have Jacob, and Jacob says that we need to not have any judgment.

This means that if someone chooses to share a story, a feeling, or an experience, we're not going to judge them for it.

And finally, Izzy reminds us that we can choose our level of participation.

This means that it's up to us how much we want to join in with this lesson.

We're now going to take a look at the keywords for today's lesson.

First of all, we have the word "ethnicity." This is the group that you belong to with shared culture, language, history, and traditions.

Next, we have racism.

This means being unkind because of the color of someone's skin or their ethnicity.

And finally, we have immigrant.

An immigrant is someone who has moved to another country, usually to live there permanently.

As we go through today's lesson, keep an eye out for these keywords, and when you spot them, see if you can remember what they mean.

Today's lesson is split into two learning cycles.

Our first learning cycle is called "What is the history of racist myths?" And our second learning cycle is called "Who has immigrated to Britain?" Let's make a start on our first learning cycle, "What is the history of racist myths?" Ethnicity is the group that you belong to with shared culture, language, history, and traditions.

There are lots of different ethnicities around the world, including British, Indian, Chinese, Nigerian, Caribbean, or Filipino.

There's lots of other different ethnicities too, and Ms. Walsh reminds us that people can be a mix of ethnicities too.

For example, if their parents have different ethnicities.

The idea that people are from different races, or even have a race, started around the 1500s.

While ethnicity does exist, the idea of race itself is not true.

Scientists have shown that all humans are the same species and there are no real biological differences that divide us into separate races.

Ms. Walsh says that the idea that people are from different races was largely invented to give reasons for treating people unfairly.

Let's do a check for understanding to see how you're doing so far with this learning cycle.

I'd like you to add one word to make this statement correct.

Scientists have shown the idea of race is true.

Can you add one word to make the statement correct? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that you would need to add the word "not" in order to make this statement true.

So now our true statement says: Scientists have shown the idea of race is not true.

Well done if you got this right.

When the idea of race was invented, this allowed racist myths to be created too.

A myth is a story or a belief that many people have which is simply not true.

Unfortunately, racist myths still exist today, and some people still believe them.

Ms. Walsh says that an example of a racist myth would be the belief that someone of a particular ethnicity is more or less intelligent than another.

Racist myths allow racism to continue.

Racism is often caused by people believing in racist myths and this being used to give reasons for treating someone unfairly or differently just because of their perceived race or ethnicity.

Andrea says that when people believe racist myths, they may, for example, treat a Black person differently to a white person because of a false belief that they have.

Let's do another check for understanding.

This time, I'd like you to decide what word is missing.

Racism often continues because of people believing racist what? Which word is missing? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that the missing word is myths.

Racism often continues because of people believing racist myths.

And remember, these are false stories.

Well done if you got this right.

So let's have a look at the question, how did racist ideas start in Britain? So racist ideas were invented a very long time ago, but some people unfortunately still believe that they are true.

From the 1500s, Britain started to build what's called an empire by taking control of many countries around the world, including places in Africa and Asia.

Britain also became heavily involved in the transatlantic slave trade during this time.

Both the empire and slavery used racist ideas and myths to make the empire and slavery seem acceptable.

The British Government and many British people at the time wrongly believed that the places that they were controlling were less developed and that British people were more important than people from these countries.

During slavery, millions of people from Africa were treated terribly.

They were not seen as being as important as white Europeans, and they were only considered useful for hard work like farming.

The idea of race became mainly based on someone's skin color, and people started to believe the false idea or myth that some groups of people were better than others.

Ms. Walsh says that this is why racism in Britain has unfortunately existed for centuries.

By learning about this history, we can begin to understand why racism still sadly exists today.

Let's do another check for understanding to see how you're doing.

Overall, racism in Britain has existed for how long? A, a few years, B, decades, or C, hundreds of years.

What do you think? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that the correct answer is C, hundreds of years.

Overall, racism in Britain has existed for hundreds of years.

Well done if you said the same thing.

We're now going to move on to our first practice task, and well done for your hard work so far.

For this task, I'd like you to rewrite these myths so that they are correct.

So our first myth is that racism does not exist anymore in Britain.

Our second myth is that the world is split into different races.

Our third myth is that Britain does not have a history of racism.

And finally, our fourth myth is Britain's empire and the transatlantic slave trade had nothing to do with racism.

Can you rewrite these four myths so that they are correct? Pause the video and we'll go through some potential answers in a few minutes.

Okay, let's see what you might have said.

For myth number one, you might now have something like racism still exists in Britain because some people still believe in racist myths.

For the second myth, you might have said that the world is made up of people who have different ethnicities, but scientists have shown that the idea of race is not true.

For the third myth, you might have said that there have been racist ideas for hundreds of years in Britain.

And finally, for our fourth myth, you might have said something like Britain's empire and the transatlantic slave trade were both connected to racist ideas that made people think that some groups were less important than others.

Well done if your rewritten statements were anything like this.

It's now time to move on to our second learning cycle, "Who has immigrated to Britain?" Immigrants have been part of Britain for thousands of years.

Different groups of people have immigrated to Britain all throughout history.

For example, in 43 AD, the Romans arrived from Italy.

In the 5th and 6th century, the Anglo-Saxons arrived from Germany.

Between the 8th and the 10th century, the Vikings arrived from Denmark.

And in 1066, the Normans arrived from France.

In the 16th and 17th century, the Huguenots arrived from France.

In the 1800s, many Irish people came to Britain during the potato famine.

And in 1948, the Windrush generation arrived from the Caribbean.

Let's do a check for understanding to see how you're doing with this learning cycle so far.

Is this statement true or false? In the 1800s, many Irish immigrants came to Britain during the potato famine.

What do you think? Is this true or false? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that this is true.

It is true that in the 1800s, many Irish immigrants came to Britain during the potato famine.

Well done if you got this right.

Throughout history, immigrants have moved to Britain for lots of different reasons.

So for example, one reason would be to take control or rule.

So the Romans, Vikings, and Normans all came to Britain to conquer and control the country.

They could have come to settle and make a new home.

For example, the Anglo-Saxons came to start new lives.

Immigrants have moved to Britain for safety.

So the Huguenots came to escape danger and persecution because of their religion.

They've also moved to Britain because of disasters.

So many Irish people came when crops failed and people in Ireland were starving.

And people have also come to Britain for new opportunities.

So the Windrush generation, for example, came for jobs and a better life after being invited by the British Government.

Let's do another check for understanding.

Can you match the immigrant group to the reason for coming to Britain? So A, to take control, B, for safety, or C, for opportunities.

And can you match these reasons with the different immigrant group? So 1, Huguenots, 2, Windrush generation, and 3, Romans.

Can you match these groups to the reason that they came to Britain? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Okay, let's go through and see if you've matched these correctly.

You should have matched A, to take control, with 3, Romans.

B, for safety, should be matched with 1, the Huguenots.

And C, for opportunities, this should be matched with 2, the Windrush generation.

Well done if you matched these correctly.

In recent years, immigrants still come to Britain for similar reasons, so for safety, for work, to study, or to just be with family.

Ana wants to share her story.

She says, "I had to leave my country because it wasn't safe.

I didn't want to leave, but we had no choice.

Now I feel safer in Britain and my family can hope for a better future again." Pieter says, "We moved to Britain because we had family here and I wanted to work for the NHS.

Moving gave us a chance to start afresh.

Leaving home was hard, but friends helped us to settle.

Now our children are in school, I'm working at the local hospital, and life feels better." Grace says, "I'm from the USA, and I was offered a place at a university in Britain.

It was exciting to move here for studying, but it was scary too.

I miss my family, but I know that this opportunity will help me in the future." We're now going to do another check for understanding.

And this time, I'd like you to answer this question: What were the different reasons that Ana, Pieter, and Grace immigrated to Britain? Can you remember? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Okay, let's go through each answer.

Ana immigrated to Britain because she was no longer safe in her home country.

Pieter immigrated to Britain because he had family in Britain, and he moved for work opportunities as well.

So he wanted to work for the NHS.

And finally, Grace immigrated to Britain because she got a place at a British university.

Well done if you remembered this.

Generally, there has been an increase in the number of people immigrating to Britain over the past 10 years.

Most of these people have come to Britain to work, and many have been invited to do certain jobs.

For example, to work in the NHS.

Pieter says that many immigrants in Britain work as doctors and nurses, in offices, in shops, and in restaurants.

They also often work as teachers and in jobs like building and engineering.

Every immigrant has the potential to bring a different set of skills to Britain, and this is really valuable.

Often, when people refer to immigrants now, they're referring to people who've arrived more recently.

Grace says that moving to a different country is a big decision that people think about really carefully.

Sometimes people move because of difficult situations like, for example, war, but many people also move for really positive reasons, like new job opportunities, to study, or to give their family a better future.

Let's do another check for understanding.

Which of these statements are true? A, immigration to Britain began in the 2000s.

B, the Romans arrived in Britain in 43 AD.

C, immigrants come to Britain for lots of reasons.

And finally, D, only people from Denmark have immigrated to Britain.

Which of these statements are true? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that B and C are correct.

It is true that the Romans arrived in Britain in 43 AD, and it's true that immigrants come to Britain for lots of different reasons.

Well done if you got these correct answers.

Immigrants, unfortunately, may experience racism, discrimination, and even violence just because they've immigrated to Britain.

Discrimination is never okay, and everyone deserves to feel safe.

Police Officer Kofi says that if someone experiences discrimination, they can get support.

Reports of racism and discrimination can be made to a trusted adult and, in many cases, the police too.

You should always be taken seriously about your report, and it's important to keep asking for help if you feel like this isn't happening.

So how can we challenge racism safely? We can learn the facts.

We can understand real history that helps us to spot when someone is sharing racist myths.

We can speak to trusted adults.

So if you hear racist comments or see unfair treatment, it's important to tell a teacher, a parent, or another trusted adult.

It's important to be kind and inclusive.

That means that we're including everyone so we make sure that everyone feels welcome, whatever their background.

It's okay to ask questions too.

So if someone says something that doesn't sound right about different groups of people, it's okay to ask, "Is that really true?" or "How do you know that?" to help challenge these questions.

And remember that adults will help us too when challenging racism if we don't feel comfortable or safe to do so.

Let's move on to this check for understanding.

I'd like you to complete the sentence with the missing words.

Discrimination and racism are blank okay and blank deserves to feel safe.

Which words are missing? Pause the video, talk to the people around you, or have a think to yourself.

Well done if you said that the missing words were never and everyone.

The sentence should now say: Discrimination and racism are never okay and everyone deserves to feel safe.

Well done if you put these words in the correct place.

It's now time to move on to our final practice task, and well done for your hard work so far.

For the first part of this task, I'd like you to complete the timeline with the missing information to show who has immigrated to Britain in the past.

Pause the video and we'll go through what this should look like in a few minutes.

Okay, so your completed timeline should look like this.

You should start off with 43 AD, Romans.

Then for 5th and 6th century, you should have Anglo-Saxons.

For Vikings, this was in the 8th to 10th century.

1066 was the Normans.

16th and 17th century was the Huguenots.

1800s was Irish.

And 1948 was the Windrush generation.

Well done if your timeline looks anything like this.

For the next part of this practice task, I'd like you to explain why this person is incorrect.

I'd like you to try to use examples of historic immigrant groups from your timeline in your answer.

So this person is incorrectly saying, "Immigrants have only started coming to Britain within the last few years." Can you explain why they're incorrect? Pause the video and we'll go through a model answer in a few minutes.

Okay, let's see what you might have said.

You might have said something like: This person is wrong because immigrants have been coming to Britain for thousands of years, not just recently.

For example, the Romans came to Britain in 43 AD; that's nearly 2,000 years ago.

The Vikings also came from Denmark between the 8th to 10th centuries.

And in the 1800s, many Irish people moved to Britain.

And in 1948, the Windrush generation arrived from the Caribbean.

This shows that people have always moved to Britain throughout history.

Well done if your answer was anything like this.

We're now going to summarize the key learning from today's lesson.

In today's lesson, we've learned that racist myths have existed in Britain for hundreds of years, often connected to Britain's empire and involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

We've learned that these false ideas made people think that some groups were less important than others.

Immigrants have been coming to live in Britain for thousands of years, from the Romans in 43 AD to people still arriving today.

Everyone deserves to be treated fairly, no matter where they or their families come from.

And finally, we've learned that discrimination and racism are never acceptable or okay.

If we see racism happening, it's really important that we report it to a trusted adult.

In today's lesson, we've talked about some tricky topics.

If you have any worries or questions, it's really important that you share these with a trusted adult.

And there's also a resource on the screen that's there to help you too.

Well done for your fantastic hard work today.

I'm really proud of you, and I hope to see you in another lesson soon.