Over the past two years, GCF have been working on a Windrush project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The first half of this project culminated in the production Sorrel & Black Cake: A Windrush Story that was performed at the Mandela Centre in Chapeltown, The Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds Central Library and at the Ilkley Literature Festival. We also developed a Windrush Learning Resource that contains everything you need to plan and teach a lesson on Windrush or simply educate yourself.

As the project draws to a close two of our Young Ambassadors, Adeline Pitu and Lulia Togara have been developing a workshop to deliver in schools throughout June. To find out a bit about how they have found the experience of putting together a workshop and presenting in schools I asked them a few questions.

What have you learnt from creating the workshop?

Lulia: The importance of the bigger picture! Not just focusing on the interesting bits of information I want to share, but really thinking about how to make an engaging exercise into a life lesson.

Adeline: How to deal with certain information, materials and different ages, applied to Windrush and migration.

 

What’s been the hardest part about it?

Adeline: This one is a little difficult to answer, as I’ve only had a few experiences of creating workshops before. However, I do think it's hard to pin down what material you want to use and why and keep in mind the time of how long each section and response will take. But I know that this situation can be experienced in any type of workshop, depending on the topic.

It also depends on what age range you will have to teach, as it can be difficult to try to balance different perspectives on what they would and would not be used to. (E.g. Different learning styles, visual, auditory, etc).

Lulia: Realising there's a lot of information I want to share and only an hour to do it in.

  

What’s your favourite bit of the workshop? 

Lulia:  If I had to pick, I'd say the Powerful Passports exercise, but I think all the sections are really lovely.

Adeline: Having fun while learning.

 

How do you feel the workshops went?

Adeline: It was hard at first but by the end we really got into it. The hardest part was being nervous at the start, but I know that the more practice we get with the workshop, the easier it will get.

Do you want to do more things like this in the future?

Adeline: I would like to lead different workshops when I can, that can help and inspire others as well as learning from them myself. The more I put things into practice, the more confidence I have to give others what they need.

Lulia: Definitely!

Many thanks to Adeline and Lulia for letting me chat to them, and congratulations on delivering several successful workshops!