Migration competition for GCSE History students

OCR and the Migration Museum Project – dedicated to opening the UK’s first ever Migration Museum – have teamed up to launch a national history competition for 14 to 16 year olds. The challenge for school history students is to design an exhibition on the theme of migration.

The competition entries should be designed as if for display in a national migration museum. Entrants must submit an idea for an exhibition that would engage other young people on the topic of the UK's migration history.

The competition is exclusively available to school students taking migration as part of OCR’s new History GCSEs this September. Both OCR’s new History GCSEs (A and B – Schools History Project) give students the option to study the long history of migration into Britain.

The competition will be officially launched on 22 June at the Londonewcastle Project Space in Shoreditch, East London,

Sophie Henderson, Director of the Migration Museum Project, said: "OCR is operating at the cutting edge of student education and interaction in relation to the brand new migration-focused GCSEs. We cannot think of a better way of finding out how young people would actually like to learn about the important topic of migration than this competition." Mike Goddard, OCR Subject Specialist, commented: "Migration has played a constant, if not defining feature, in Britain's history. We are delighted that students taking OCR’s new History GCSEs from September will have the opportunity to be creative, thoughtful and engaged through a national competition, while at the same time contributing to their knowledge and understanding for their exams."

The competition complements the new GCSEs but is flexible so teachers could set the competition during lessons on migration, as part of an extra-curricular activity, or as revision exercise. Entries could be based on any aspect of the migration topic whether it's a local person, place, period or event, or about a controversial issue. Teams of up to four students can make entries. Different styles of entry are allowed to encourage creativity. The entry format allows students to demonstrate all the thinking and creative processes involved in the production of a rounded and meaningful vision of their interpretation. This could range from initial ideas, photos, videos or presentations, to mood boards and documents laying out how the exhibition panels would look.

Clare Broomfield, Head of History at Villiers High School in Southall, commented: "A competition with an exam focus that keeps SLT happy and develops students' analytical writing is a winner for me. It's also a fantastic opportunity for the students to develop independent research skills, whilst engaging with their own past and placing it in the grand narrative of British History."

The deadline for schools to submit entries is March 2018. To find out more, visit http://migrationmuseum.org/ocr/.