Mayflower 400 Southampton Education Resources
These educational resources, released as part of the Mayflower anniversary programme, have been produced to connect school pupils with our local history as a global gateway and a City of Sanctuary. Both rich with visual and film content, resource one focuses on the 1620 Mayflower journey and its impact, whilst resource two explores Southampton’s longer history as a place of migration and refuge. Resources have been written by teachers for teachers, curated and shaped by Oasis Academy Mayfield, supported by international and local historians including: Paula Peters of the Wampanoag tribespeople, Professor Tony Kushner, Dr Nazneen Ahmed and Don John. The 1620 resource is the first on the UK school’s Mayflower scheme created from a bicultural (English/Wampanoag) perspective.
Mayflower 400 aimed to leave a legacy that engages Southampton schools with the significance of their place in the world and the place of sanctuary it has provided to many people over the centuries. The free downloadable resources support schools to enrol, or to continue develop work, as part of the School of Sanctuary programme.
The resources are aimed at Key Stages 2-4 with weekly hour-long lessons imagined within PSHE or RE sessions. To maximise the effectiveness of this scheme of work to Key Stage 4, the discussion-based work allows students to share ideas and collaborate to enable students to vocalise their thoughts enabling them to better able to express on paper. Attention is given to help Key Stage 2 students to grapple with the concepts and vocabulary within the scheme of work.
There is more opportunity to design a creative piece depending on the strengths of the pupils. Resource Two comes with a full-scale music offer.
Resource One
In Resource One the Mayflower story is examined from both the perspective of the European settlers and the Native Americans. This is the first time Wampanoag people have co-curated education materials for UK schools. The scheme of work draws out parallels between the intolerances faced by some today with the experience of the Mayflower passengers and the Wampanoag Native Americans. The impact and resulting losses of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown are also compared with the losses that were experienced by the Mayflower passengers and the Wampanoag people.
Paula Peters, Wampanoag Scholar said: “The curriculum developed for Southampton students as a result of this collaboration is perhaps the most comprehensive teaching on pre-colonial, Mayflower, and colonial history that finally includes the Native perspective. The Wampanoag story has been marginalized for centuries, yet the story of the Mayflower is one that cannot be completely understood without the inclusion of the Wampanoag perspective. These are the stories that inform our humanity.”
Resource Two
Oasis Academy Mayfield co-created Resource Two with locally-based historians, Professor Tony Kushner, Dr Nazneen Ahmed and Don John. It contains 14 snapshots of history with significant moments in Southampton’s role as a Gateway City. The resource does not cover all the aspects of migration that have occurred through the centuries, nor cover every people group, but the common themes of finding refuge and a new home in Southampton are explored in depth through the lessons.
A focus of the resources is the theme of sanctuary, building on Southampton’s rich history of refuge and migration, as well as its designation as a City of Sanctuary. Many local schools have become Schools of Sanctuary and these resources will build on that programme whilst also enabling new schools to become accredited.
These resources are supported by a selection of films which explore specific migration stories in Southampton, produced by Doherty Associates and City Eye. The films can be accessed separately by following this link.
Accompanying Resource Two is a suite of new music pieces composed by world-renowned cellist and kora player, Tunde Jegede. These pieces complement a new commission based on stories of refugee and migrant communities in Southampton, Voyages of the Heart, which premiered at Turner Sims in April 2021. There are pieces for choirs, orchestras, and smaller groups available. During 2021- 2022 Southampton Music Hub will be working with schools delivering work from this suite.
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