What’s happening in Year 6 – Week 5

Year 6 have had a fantastic week this week, exploring our Diverse Britain Topic: The Mangrove Nine. To start, we explored the key question: ‘What is Immigration?’ We thought carefully about push and pull factors which might lead to people migrating. We also explored the gradual increase in immigration to the UK and thought about some of the reasons why our country might have seen a gradual increase over time. Some of the pull factors we identified were free health care, good jobs and opportunities. We then contextualised our learning by looking at The Windrush Generation.

Then, we used mapping software to explore the area of Notting Hill in West London, which is where the Mangrove 9 were from. Notting Hill was once home to the Mangrove restaurant, which opened in March, 1969, by Trinidadian Frank Crichlow. The restaurant became a home from home for the black community in Notting Hill. We were horrified to learn that the Mangrove restaurant became a target for the police, which ended up destroying it. An organised peaceful protest against the police ended in violence and the arrest of nine protesters, including writer Darcus Howe, the owner of the Mangrove restaurant Frank Crichlow and the leading Black Panther Altheia Jones. All the defendants were acquitted of the main charges of incitement to riot.

We were interested to hear of the historic nature of the judge’s closing comment: the first judicial acknowledgement of entrenched racism in the Metropolitan Police. We explored the purpose of activism and created slideshows, artwork and bunting to memorialise this historic event. As you can see from the wealth of work we have produced, we have learnt a lot about this topic and had great fun in the process!