Migration on a Timeline
GROW Humanities · Autumn 1 · Week 1 · 40 minutes
Today at a Glance
◆ Supported
Use the printed dates on the cards. Put four cards in order, earliest on the left.
▲ Standard
Order six cards. For two of them, say what came before and what came after.
★ Stretch
Order six cards, then rank them by how much each one changed who lives in Britain. Give a reason for your top choice.
Teacher Print Tools — Week 1
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Arrival Task – What we already know about time and order
A timeline is a line that shows events in the order they happened. Earlier is on the left. Later is on the right.
A date tells you when. Two dates tell you which came first. That is all chronology needs.
Arrival decision: Use the event cards, or add one event you already know about with its date. Both are full answers. Nobody will ask which one you picked.
Before we start, look at the six event cards on your table. Each card names one event in the story of migration to Britain and gives its date. The dates come from the school-approved source pack. Everyone in this room can work with these cards from start to end.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Starter: Why does the order matter?
Here are two answers about the same two cards.
Answer A: “Both cards are about people coming to Britain.”
Answer B: “Here the Windrush card is 1948 and the EU card is 2004, so the Windrush arrival came first, by more than fifty years.”
Answer B tells you more than Answer A. Answer A says what the cards are about. Answer B says which came first and how far apart they are. That is chronology.
The need for this lesson is the order. A pile of events is just a pile. A timeline turns the pile into a story with a before and an after. By the end you will be able to build one and explain it.
Try it in your head: think of two things that happened to this class this term. Which came first? How do you know? The thing you used to decide is your evidence for the order.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
I Do: Six events on one line
The timeline above runs from 1948 on the left to 2004 on the right. Each dot is one event from the cards, with its date under it. The label above or below each dot names the event.
Notice what the line does not say. It does not say one event caused the next. The 1962 Act came after the Windrush arrival, but the line alone cannot tell you whether one led to the other. That needs evidence from a source, which is next week's lesson.
Watch me do it: I take the Windrush card. The date printed on it is 1948. I find 1948 on the line and place the card there. Then I take the 2004 card. That is far to the right. So the Windrush card comes before it. I read the date first. Then I place the card. Then I say before or after.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
We Do: Order three cards together
Card A: 1972 · families expelled from Uganda arrive in Britain after being expelled from Uganda.
Card B: 1948 · the Windrush docks at Tilbury with passengers from the Caribbean.
Card C: 1962 · the 1962 Act on Commonwealth immigration limits who can come to live in Britain.
Order first: put the three cards in order on your table, earliest on the left. Then write the sequence as letters on your whiteboard, for example B, C, A. Everyone orders at the same time. Then we hold the boards up and check together.
Evidence check
This one has a single right order, because every card has a printed date. But the reason still matters. When we check, we ask which date told you. We do not just check the letters. A sequence with a reason is chronology. A sequence without one is a guess that happened to work.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
I Do: Before, after, and the trap in between
The diagram above has three boxes: date, then before or after, then caused? The first two boxes come straight from the card. The last box is the trap. A date can never fill it on its own.
Here is a sentence that falls into the trap: "The 1972 arrivals happened because of the 1962 Act." The dates only show that 1962 came first. Nothing on the card says why the 1972 families came. In fact they came because they were expelled from Uganda.
Fixing it together: change because of to after. "The 1972 arrivals happened after the 1962 Act." Now the sentence says only what the dates can prove. The word after is the safe word for a timeline.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
We Do: Rank the events together
◆ Supported
Point to the card you think changed Britain most. Then choose the reason card that fits.
▲ Standard
Put the six cards in order of time, then say which two are closest together and how many years apart they are.
★ Stretch
Rank the six events by how much each changed who lives in Britain. Give a reason for your top two.
We build one ranking on the board first. Nobody writes yet. Everyone puts their top event on a whiteboard. Then we show them all at once. Then we agree what a good reason looks like.
Ranking is different from ordering. Ordering uses the dates. Ranking uses a judgement, and a judgement needs a reason you can say out loud. Write the event, not a describing word.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Independent Work — Your record: migration on a timeline
Make one record. You may use the six event cards, or add one event you know about with a date you can point to, or both. All three are complete answers.
◆ Supported
Four cards in order, earliest on the left, using the printed dates. An adult may scribe your exact words, and the words stay yours. Point to the earliest card first.
▲ Standard
Six cards in order. For each one, write the date, the event, and whether it came before or after the Windrush arrival. Use a separate row for each event so the parts stay in order.
★ Stretch
Six cards in order, then a ranking of the top three by how much each changed who lives in Britain, each with a reason. A reason that uses the word because must point to something on a card.
Check yourself: are your events in order from earliest to latest?
Check yourself: does every row have a date you can point to on a card?
Check yourself: did you use before or after, not because, in the order column?
⏸ Pens down — quick partner check!
Half way through: stop, swap with a partner, and check one thing on the list above together. Then carry on.
WAGOLL — what a good one looks like
Here is a finished row: 1956. Bus workers are recruited in Barbados. After the Windrush arrival, by eight years. One date, one event, one safe word. And someone who has never seen the card can check it.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Lundy Loop — Your Voice in This Lesson
🚪 SPACE
Space is room to take part;
SPACE stays available.
📣 VOICE
VOICE is received.
👥 AUDIENCE
AUDIENCE names back exactly.
⭐ INFLUENCE
INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.
Exit Ticket — Audience receives; influence changes something
Read one row to a partner or to an adult. The listener says back the date and the safe word they heard, in their own words.
Did the listener hear because where you meant after? Then change that one word. That change is your influence. It belongs to you, not to them.
Next week you will read a real source about one of these events, and start to fill the dashed box. Keep your timeline. It will help you then.
✅ Complete
Hand in your record and tick the learner confirmation on your sheet. That is the lesson done.
SPACE stays available. VOICE is received. AUDIENCE names back exactly. INFLUENCE changes one real next action.