Excellence in Cities

Elaine Cooke

EIC contacted Grange to see if they could use our facilities to further a project they had started with several primary schools in our area.

The pupils had interviewed people and written storys of peoples personal migration to and settlement in Oldham.

They had also drawn pictures from these storys which they developed with Mrs cooke and a selection of yr 8 pupils, the pupils worked on the computers using a piece of software called photoshop to manipulate their drawings.

All these elements were brought together to produce the book at the top of the page which would support and provide core material for, the literacy and citizenship lessons. It is also intended to be used for Guided Reading in the Literacy Hour and as a stimulus for further literacy and citizenship work.

Here is an extract from one of the stoys that appears in the book.

Yasmin Komal's Journey

I arrived in England in 1987 at the age of fifteen. Leaving Pakistan was a heartbreaking experience, as I was leaving my friends, family, school and the house I grew up in.

Heathrow airport greeted me with cold and misty weather, quite opposite of the hot climate in Pakistan. It was a big climate shock, and I wrapped myself in a shawl, but was still feeling very cold. My uncle came to the airport to recive me, and we started another never-ending road journey to Oldham.I felt hungry after a while and ate crisps and drank coke from a tin for the first time. It tasted very nice, but I became worried that in England this would be the normal food and perhaps I would not get my beloved curry and chappatis. During this journey I noticed everything was clean, tidy and new. All the roads had tarmac and I saw the motorway for the first time and the hills were green. It was a big culture shock to see women wearing mini skirts, especially in cold weather.

When I stepped inside the house, it felt strange walking on the carpet, as I was used to walking on tiled floors. I noticed all the houses and streets were the same, and I was afraid of getting lost if I went out. The house and the garden were very small, compared to the big house with a very large garden I had left behind.