Freedom Bird by Jerdine Nolan (Y5 planning sequence in the Literary Curriculum) would be an ideal text to teach this alongside. Much of what was in here I’d vaguely heard of (especially the areas Professor Olusoga highlights in the 1700s and beyond), but much of the information about things before then was brand new to me. And I learned some new things about topics I had a baseline knowledge of, like the Windrush generation, and the British profit from slave trade and slavery.

LoveReading4Kids exists because books change lives, and buying books through LoveReading4Kids means you get to change the lives of future generations, with 25% of the cover price donated to schools in need. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. I think it’s important they know their history is part of British history. It’s not an optional extra or some specialist subject. It’s actually an integral part of the British story. Winner of the Book of the Year, Children's Illustrated and Non-Fiction at The British Book Awards, 2021 This emotive poetry anthology from former Children’s Laureate, Michael Rosen, explores the plight of refugees today, Rosen's childhood as part of a Jewish family in post-war London, his family's' memories of the war, and the fate of relatives who disappeared in Nazi Germany. For all the fanfare heralding the book and the series as a revolutionary landmark – as a means of seeing our history differently – it is Olusoga’s personal story that is most arresting. At the beginning and end, he mournfully captures that feeling of being unwelcome in Britain, and the desire for flight, to escape the brutal and bruising atmosphere that I, as a child of Jamaican immigrants, felt in the 1970s. Our father used to counsel: “Don’t get too comfortable, you hear; we’re only passing through.” But our temporary residence, despite the worst efforts of Enoch Powell’s bovver boys and their contemporary equivalents, turned out to be permanent. Olusoga reminds us that we had been here centuries before. And as the descendants of people who travelled to these shores on British passports stamped “right of abode”, surely now “we reach”.Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home > As the government’s national archive for England, Wales and the United Kingdom, The National Archives hold over 1,000 years of the nation’s records for everyone to discover and use. Designed for KS3+ readers, but more than suitable for adults who are looking for an introduction into this area of history Royal Mail industrial action taking place in 2023 may have an impact on delivery times to all destinations both within the UK and internationally. These delays are out of our control.

When I was 16, I bought a copy of Peter Fryer’s Book Staying Power. It was an incredibly empowering experience to read that book. I wish I’d been able to read it at 11 not 16.

Longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards 2022 Information Books 3-14 | Winner of Book of the Year, Children's: Illustrated and Non-Fiction at The British Book Awards | Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2020