Exploring and engaging with themes in 'Coming To England’
I can identify and reflect on the key themes in 'Coming to England'.
Exploring and engaging with themes in 'Coming To England’
I can identify and reflect on the key themes in 'Coming to England'.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- ‘Coming to England’ highlights Floella’s resilience and advocacy against racism.
- The text has themes of determination, migration, identity and overcoming adversity.
- Floella has a strong support network; she describes positive traits that she has learnt from both her parents.
- A theme is a big idea, topic or message that recurs within a story.
Keywords
Theme - A theme is a big idea, topic or message that recurs within a story.
Convey - To convey means to communicate a message to the reader directly or indirectly.
Discrimination - Discrimination is treating a person or group of people differently and unfairly because of a certain characteristic.
Adversity - Adversity can be described as challenges, prejudice, and hardships a person had to confront and overcome in their life.
Common misconception
Pupils may think that Floella's experiences were only negative when arriving in England.
Experiences that Floella had in both countries were both positive and negative. Listing and discussing these either with talk partners, in small groups or as a whole class can be beneficial to build up an overall picture of Floella's life.
To help you plan your year 6 english lesson on: Exploring and engaging with themes in 'Coming To England’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 6 english lesson on: Exploring and engaging with themes in 'Coming To England’, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 2 english lessons from the 'Coming To England': reading unit, dive into the full secondary english curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Equipment
You need a copy of the 2021 Macmillan Children’s Book edition of ‘Coming to England’ written by Floella Benjamin, illustrated by Joelle Avelino, for this lesson.
Content guidance
- Depiction or discussion of discriminatory behaviour
Supervision
Adult supervision recommended
Licence
Lesson video
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Starter quiz
6 Questions
Coming to England
An inspiring true story celebrating the Windrush Generation
Floella Benjamin
Joelle Avelino
delicate, nuanced expression or behaviour; not obvious or explicit
remaining food from a meal; what is uneaten
the throat; the passage through which food passes into the stomach
a cruel and oppressive ruler who abuses power
someone pretending to have virtues or beliefs they do not possess
expressed joy or happiness; celebrated with delight
respect and approval; regarding someone or something with esteem
Exit quiz
6 Questions
a big idea, topic or message that recurs within a story
to communicate a message to the reader directly or indirectly
treating a person differently because of a certain characteristic