UK SCHOOLCHILDREN want to know more about the contribution of the Windrush Generation’s impact on the country according to a new nationwide survey.

The survey, in which 35,000 pupils took part, found that 76 percent of students in the primary school age category (5 to 11-years-old) who were questioned said yes when asked if the Windrush Generation should be celebrated more. Over 77 percent of pupils in the secondary school age category (11 to 16-years-old) felt that they should learn about the Windrush generation at school.

Survey

The poll, by social enterprise Votes for Schools, was completed alongside lessons on the Windrush in the lead-up to the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the ship this Thursday (June 22).

The survey’s findings have been followed by renewed calls by education campaigners and community groups for the contribution of the Windrush Generation, and the teaching of Black history in schools, to be included as a mandatory part of the national school curriculum.

They point to the critical role that education plays in creating a better understanding of the Windrush Generation’s legacy in helping to create  today’s multicultural Britain.

Social commentator and campaigner Patrick Vernon who has been at the forefront of several high-profile campaigns on cultural heritage and social justice in the UK told The Voice: “The survey definitely makes a strong case for including the  contribution of the Windrush Generation case in the national curriculum. But the campaign has to be part of a wider one to get the education system to acknowledge and teach Black British history.

Campaigning

“A number of community organisations have been campaigning on this issue for some time. But the question is does the government see it this way? And are they going to take actions that incorporate these demands? We have to remember that the conversation around Windrush, and Black history isn’t just about history, it includes geography, literature, the arts. That’s why this is so important.”

Recently, organisations such as the West India Committee and the Black Cultural Archives have offered to support the Department of Education with  their educational and archival resources in order to help the national curriculum be revised to more accurately reflect British and Caribbean history. However, there has been a lack of response from the government to the offers.

Others who have criticised the omission of the Windrush Generation and Black British history from the national curriculum  have highlighted the fact that sharing the stories about the Windrush Generation and their contribution to the UK was one of the key recommendations of the Lessons Learned Review, an independent report commissioned by the government and published in 2020 which examined the causes of the Windrush Scandal.

The review, written by Wendy Williams,  was one strand of the government’s response to the scandal which saw hundreds of people who arrived in the UK from the Caribbean between 1948 and 1973 wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights as a result of the Conservative government’s ‘Hostile Environment’ legislation. 

Difficulties

Jamila Thompson, a Youth Advocate and researcher with BLAM,  a charity that campaigns on Black learning, achievement and mental health told The Voice: “The survey does indeed add further weight to the need for the story of the Windrush Generation to be put onto the national curriculum. We have conducted our own research project for over a year into racial discrimination in the education system and the need to decolonise the curriculum.

“One of the topics that came up in our surveys and teacher focus groups was about ensuring that histories such as the Windrush Generations are included in the curriculum but also, the difficulties around doing so.”

Thompson continued: “At BLAM we are very aware of the anti-Blackness and anti-Black racism which continues to persist in the education system and the ways in which negative narratives relating to those racialised as Black are pushed through the curriculum.

“Thus for us, teaching about the Windrush Generation as part of the national curriculum will ensure that young people have historical knowledge about the contributions of Black people.  

Dismantle

“However, that’s only one element. In order to dismantle the anti-Black stereotypes which young people and adults in British society are continuously made aware of, teaching such histories offers another way in which for Black people to be viewed. Such positive representation can help to raise cultural awareness, the esteem of Black students and provide better historical knowledge.”

Campaigners have pointed to former education secretary Michael Gove’s time in office as a ley factor leading to the stifling of Black history and literature on the national curriculum.

In February 2013, when Liz Truss headed up the Department of Education it consulted on draft changes to the curriculum which said that children should be taught about “the Windrush Generation, wider new Commonwealth immigration, and the arrival of East African Asians; society and social reform, including the abolition of capital punishment, the legalisation of abortion and homosexuality, and the Race Relations Act”.

Changes to the curriculum were proposed in February 2013 when Liz Truss was education secretary. These included teaching students about the Windrush Generation, wider new Commonwealth immigration, and the arrival of East African Asians.

Changes

However, later that year, when Gove replaced Truss as Education Secretary, this paragraph was removed and replaced with a vague reference to “social, cultural and technological change in post-war British society” and the suggestion that schools could study “an aspect of social history, such as the impact through time of the migration of people to, from and within the British Isles”.

Later that year, after Gove replaced this paragraph was removed and replaced with a vague reference to “social, cultural, and technological change in post-war British society” and the suggestion that schools could study “an aspect of social history, such as the impact through time”.

Some have argued that Gove’s policies mean that the teaching of Black history in England is seen as optional. In 2020, The Guardian reported that less than 11% of GCSE students are studying modules relating to Black people’s contribution to Britain.

Among those backing the mandatory inclusion of the Windrush Generation onto the national curriculum is Juliet Coley-Bremmer, former Senior Deputy head at Gladesmore Community School in Tottenham, north London.

Coley-Bremmer has written and is directing a musical called Windrush 75 in the Hall of Fame, which will be staged at the Hackney Empire in October and based on the acclaimed Black Heroes in the Hall of Fame devised by former Voice editor Flip Fraser.

She says more attention also needs to be paid to how the subject is delivered.

Impact

“Whenever you write or create something as a teacher you always have to ask  yourself ‘what do I want the outcome to be? What’s the impact of this? And you work backwards from there” she said.

“For me it would be about creating a fuller understanding of the Windrush Generation.  So, as a teacher,  I would make sure that the story of the Windrush Generation was taught in such a way that included Windrush Generation members as part of round table discussions with pupils.

“This would be one part of a more imaginative and collaborative approach that would really help young people understand how difficult life was for Black people at that time in history. You could have someone talk to pupils about what it was like to work in the NHS or London Transport when creating the lesson.

Coley-Bremmer continued: “Young people, and sadly many of them in the Black community, don’t realise the extent to which our elders suffered and paved the way to help create the country we live in today. They might think they are the only ones going through hard times with everything that going on today. I don’t feel that the respect that is due to Windrush Generation elders is always given because their story isn’t fully understood.

“But through education, through understanding their story, we empower young people to take the baton and move the Windrush legacy forward.”

The survey was completed in May with pupils in nearly 1,000 schools across England, Wales and Scotland taking part.

VotesforSchools intends to use the survey results to advocate for increased educational resources and support for schools in incorporating the Windrush Generation into their teaching.

Spokesperson Penny Lamb told The Voice: “When we presented the children with the facts about the Windrush Generation, their contribution to the UK and some of the problems in recent years such as the Windrush Scandal they felt that that was important to be included on the curriculum.  

“We gave them the counterargument that Maths and English is important and that there is a lot of history in the world so they had a debate about this and understood the issues before taking part in the survey.”