Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - AOC is a politician and activist. She has served as the US representative for New York’s 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of the Democratic party. She is the first and youngest ever female member of the Democratic Socialists of America elected to serve in Congress. She supports workplace democracy, Medicare for All, tuition -free public college, a federal jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal and abolishing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She has earned a reputation for vigorously holding politicians and business interests to account.

Asima Chatterjee - (nee Mukherjee) was an Indian organic chemist noted for her work in the fields of organic chemistry and phytomedicine (use of herbs and other plants). Her most notable works included the research on vinca alkaloids, the development of anti-epileptic drugs and the development of anti-malarial drugs. Through her research she developed anti-epileptic, anti-convulsive and chemotherapy drugs to treat patients. From different types of plants she developed anti-malarial drugs with her team. She dedicated 40 years of her time researching cancer and anti-cancer growth drugs. Asima, in 1944, was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Science from an Indian university. In 1975 she received the Padma Bhushan Award - one of the highest civilian awards in India. She lived to the age of 89 and died in 2006 in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Her career spanned 6 decades during which she nurtured students, wrote over 400 papers and saved countless lives with her discoveries. Sources Wikipedia RISE by Maliha Abidi

Autumn Peltier is an Anishinaabe Indigenous rights advocate from the Wiikwemkoog First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada. Aged 8 she began advocating for the universal right to clean drinking water. In her culture water is one of the most sacred elements. Aged just 13 she addressed world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly on the issue of water protection. In 2019 she was named Cheif Water Commissioner for the Anishinabek Nation. She is concerned for clean water for the indigenous people across Canada… She is also the leading voice for all Indigenous matters across Canada- history and on-going racism and inaccuracy of Indigenous people, missing and murdered women and access and support for’ the children coming behind us’. Sources Wikipedia RISE by Maliha Abidi

Hannah Szenes or Chanah Senesh was a Jew born in Budepest, Hungary. She joined the British Army in 1943 as part of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. She trained to be a Special Operation’s Executive - SOE . She was learning to be a spy. After training in Egypt she parachuted into Europe near the Hungarian border. Having spent 3 months helping people fight against the Nazis she tried to cross into Hungary. Everything went wrong. She was captured, arrested and tortured as a spy. For 3 months she was tortured but revealed no information about her mission. They even threatened to kill her mother. She was tried, found guilty executed by firing squad on 7 th November 1944, she was just 23 years of age Hannah is regarded as a national heroine in Israel. Her poetry is widely known . The Yad Hna kibbutz as well as several streets are named after her. She has been largely been forgotten in Hungary, her birth place. Sources used Wikipedia Herstory by Katherine Halligan

Aisholpan Nurguiv aged 13,became the first female eagle hunter to compete in the eagle festival at Ulgii, Mongolia. A documentary about Aisholpan was shortlisted, but ultimately not nominated, for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. In 2013 she competed at the e day event at the Sonar festival held near Nura. There were 40 competitors this involved shirga (lures) and live prey… She was awarded a prize by virtue of being the only female competitor. Aged 15, in 2015 , she went on her first hunt with her own eagle. Her desire is to become a doctor. The film makers established a fund to help pay for her higher education. Her family became ’ profit participants’ in the documentary. They also donated the 3, 000 euros for winning best Documentary at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Sources Wikipedia Rise by Maliha Abidi

Theresa is the paramount chief , or Inkosi, of the Dedza District in the central region of Malawi. She was the youngest of 12 siblings.She married and had children- all boys. Theresa for 27 years worked as a secretary for the College of Zambia District in southern Malawi. In 2003 the chiefs of the district chose her to be the next senior chief of the district, a district of 900, 000 people… She found that there were high rates of child marriage in her district- children aged 7 and upwards. She could not persuade parents to change their views but was able to convince community leaders to change the civil code to ban early marriages. 50 sub-chiefs agreed to abolish early marriage and annul existing unions. In 2015 a law was passed which prevented marriage before 18. But the constitution and customary law administered by traditional authorities still said children could still marry if the parents agreed. By 2019 she had managed to have over 3,500 early marriages annulled. She is now working to raise the legal age in Mallawi to 21. Her actions have brought her international recognition. UN Women and UNICEF plan to work with traditional leaders elsewhere to replicate the best practices of Theresa. Educate a girl and you educate the whole area- You educate the world Theresa Kachindamoto Sources used Wikipedia Herstory by Katherine Hallidan

The race to get to be first to the North Pole and then the South Pole. The American Charles Francis Hall (1821-71) made 3 expeditions and sailed further north than anyone else - he was the first person to visit the north shore of Greenland. Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) was a Norwegian explorer, inventor, scientist, diplomat and humanitarian. In 1888 led the first crossing of the Greenland interior traversing the island on cross-country skis… They reached 86 degrees 14 in his Fram expedition (1893-6). The Fram was specially built using wood reinforced with metal. He sailed his ship into the pack ice and hoped the Arctic currents would ‘float’ him to the North Pole. It remained frozen for 2 years. With a companion he tried unsuccessfully to walk the rest of the way. ( read Death and legacy) Sir James Clark Ross (1800-1862) was a British Royal Navy Officer and polar explorer was known for his 6 polar explorations of the Arctic. 2 with his uncle Sir John Ross, 4 with Sir William Parry and his own of the Antarctic (1839-1843). On June 1st 1831 a small party located the North magnetic Pole. Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (1856-1920) made 3 expeditions to the Arctic 1898-1902, 1905-6 and 1908/9. During the last one he claimed he had reached the North Pole. He paid for his trips by writing about his adventures in books and magazines. Matthew Alexander Henson (1866-1955), an African American, accompanied Robert Perry on 7 voyages to the Arctic spread over 23 years- 18 on expeditions. In the 1908/9 expedition he claimed that on April 6th 1909 he was the first of party of 6 to reach the North Pole. (Wally Herbert in 1989 published research that suggested they could have fallen 48-97 kms short due to navigational errors.) Carsten Borechgrevink (1964-1934) was an Anglo-Norwegian polar explorer and pioneer of modern Antarctica travel. The race to be first to the South Pole between Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) and Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen 91864-1934) is in most history books. Amundsen was more organized and reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and went on in 12 May 1926 to be one of 16 men to reach the North Pole by the airship Norge ! Scott had already led 1 expedition to the Antarctic. Scott with his 5 friends arrived on 17 January 1912, less then 5 weeks later. They all died on the return journey. Scott kept a Diary. The diary revealed that on 17 March the sick Captain Oates walked out of the camp to die in the snow. Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922)was an Anglo-Irish explorer who led 3 British expeditions to the Antarctica. The Imperial Trans-Antarctica Expedition (1914-17) to cross the Antarctica from sea to sea struck disaster when the Endurance became trapped by packed ice and crushed. Lifeboats were launched to reach Elephant Island and ultimately South Georgia Island - a voyage of 720 nautical miles - his most famous exploit. In 1921 he returned to Antarctica but died of a heart attack.

I have included a definition/history of Mothering Sunday, a vocabulary and a Mothering Sunday card outline, a picture and recipe for Simnel cake which I found, plus a word search with answers. These sheets I hope will be useful.

Harvest Festival is celebrated all over the world. The very first sheet can used to introduce a lesson on Harvest Festival, or even part of an assembly. The next sheet, a ‘comic’ clip, will work well with younger children. There is a diary and poetry aid with a ‘blank sheet’ for best copy. There is a simple word search with two anagram sheets. There is a also a sheet looking at the word’ harvest’ three different ways and an answer sheet. Children are often asked to see how many words they can find in a word. This I have done separately for both Harvest and Festival - there are so many words! Children can either look for the words and create their own crossword (many answers included) or instead, using the word list answer the crossword sheets.

St David is the patron saint of Wales. I have included a page from Wikipedia. There is an information sheet about St. David followed by two large font sheets containing basic information .There are two pieces of gap work (differentiated), a crossword which needs a picture answer, a word search, information about the Welsh flag and the Union Jack, plus diary ideas with a blank for their diary. These sheets should keep the children interested on St. David’s day - a mixture of different things to do. The extra two pages are the b/w front and back cover for the whole series Four Wise Men. for them to colour.

Mary Slessor was a Christian missionary in Nigeria. She started life, at 11, as a 'half timer' - school for six hours/ working for six hours for the Baxter Brother's Mill with her mother and father to become the 'white queen of Okoyong' in Nigeria. When she died in 1915 she was given a state funeral in Nigeria in recognition of her life time given to helping others. She is an inspiration for any girl, or boy, who is thinking becoming a missionary. We celebrated the centenary of her death two years ago and there is a lot of material to find on the internet about her.

St. Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, nine other countries, plus a number of different groups- from fishermen to farmworkers. He was one of Christ's original disciples so I have included Biblical references to him. There is a brief biography with a two gap sheets to fill in. There is also a crossword, a word search and 'How many words can you find in Andrew? ' There is a sheet about the history of the St. Andrew flag and the Union Jack plus some ideas for a Diary- this comes with a clipart sheet for final copy. I hope children find the work interesting

A poetry aid and vocabulary to help children put their ideas down about Red Nose Day or Comic Relief. I have differentiated by creating 2 Poetry Aid sheets. i

The first four sheets are all to do with FIRSTS. First into Space -Yuri Gagarin. First Man on the Moon - Neil Armstrong and First Re-usable Spaceship - Columbia. The next sheet is a general vocabulary about space travel followed by thoughts about meeting an alien. There is a crossword/word search/answers and two A5 ‘blank’ sheets for ‘best’ copy. Mae Jemison was the first African-American woman to travel in space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

Wangari Muta Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental and political activist and the first African woman to win the Nobel prize. In 1977 she founded the Green Belt Movement = an environmental no=governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation and women’s rights. The statement announcing her as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel committee said Maatha stands at the front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social economic and cultural development in Kenya and Africa. She has taken a holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights and women’s rights in particular. Shae thinks globally and acts locally. Sources Remembering Remarkable Firsts During Black History Month Wikipedia

I have created some work sheets which can be used to help the children understand the importance of Remembrance Day. I have included a vocabulary, a Poetry Aid a 'blank' for their writing, a word search and a 'How many words can you find in ______-' plus answers. Illustrations are by David Woodroffe.

I have put together 10 pieces of work associated with trees. The second sheet about the rain forest I think is excellent clip art. The poetry aids ‘In the woods’ and ‘Trees’ also have excellent clip art. The two narrative pieces at the end, ‘Trees’ and ‘Tree Lover’ were both written with an environmental bias. The first dealing with the importance of trees, the second is how trees are inhabited by many wild life animals. David Woodroffe, an established illustrator, draw all the pictures.

I have put together 10 New Testament profiles which I hope should prove of use. I have included all/many of the biblical references for all of them. Mary and Joseph the parents of Jesus, and Zechariah and John the Baptist are related. Zechariah's wife, Elizabeth, is a cousin of Mary and John the Baptist is their son. I have included a statement explaining what happened normally to illegitimate babies in Israel 2000 years ago. Andrew, Simon Peter and Matthew are three of the disciples of Jesus. Mary Magdalene, according to the gospels, only had seven demons removed by Jesus. There is actually nothing to say what she did before she became a follower of Jesus. Lazarus was raised from the dead and Stephen was the first Christian martyr.

Olaudah Equiano, known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, He was probably born in the Eboe region of the kingdom of Benin province, in the area that is now southern Nigeria. ( He twice listed his birthplace in the Americas) Most of what he wrote in his book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa (published in 1789)can be verified. ( See Amazon notes) As a child he was kidnapped with his sister, aged about 11, and sold to local slave traders and shipped across the Atlantic to Barbados and then Virginia. In Virginia he was sold to a Royal Naval officer, Lieutenant Michael Pascal. Pascal renamed him Gustavus Vassa - the name of a 16th century Swedish king ( he had already been called Michael and Jacob). He travelled the oceans with Pascal for 8 years. In his book he give eye witness accounts of the Seven Years War with France. Pascal favoured him by sending him to his sister-in-law so that he could attend school and learn to read and write. Olaudah was converted to Christianity and was baptised at St. Margaret’s Westminster on 9th February, 1759 Pascal then sold him to Captain James Doran of the Charming Sally at gravesend, from where he was transported to the Caribbean. Doran sent him to Montserrat where he was sold to Robert King, a prominent American Quaker merchant from Philadelphia who traded in the Caribbean. He worked as a deckhand, barber and valet for King. He earned enough money over 3 years, by trading on the side, to buy his freedom. He then spent the next 20 years travelling the world. He made trips to Turkey and the Arctic. He took care not to be captured and sold again as a slave. In 1786 he came to London, He became involved in the movement to abolish slavery and joined the Sons of Africa - a group of 12 black African men. (See notes) In 1789 he published his book. which depicted the horrors of slavery. he spent many months speaking in public about his life. It went through 9 editions in his lifetime and helped gain passage of the British Slave Trade Act of 1807 On 7th April 1792 he married Susannah Cullen, an English woman. They married in Soham, Cambridge and settled there. They had 2 daughters -Anna Maria and Joanna Susannah died in February 1796 Olaudah Equiano aged 52, died on 31st March 1797 just over a year later. The register reads Gustus Vasa, 52 years, St Mary Le Bone He was buried at Whitefield’s Tabernacle on 6th April. (burial place now lost). Anna Maria died in 1797 aged just 4 Joanna went on to marry Revd. Henry Bromley Amazon Timelines from Black History BBC History

The British nationality Act of 1948 gave citizens of the UK and Colonies status and the right of settlement in the UK. This resulted that between 1948=1970 nearly half a million people moved form the Caribbean to Britain which faced sever labour shortages after WW11. These immigrants were later referred to as the Windrush generation. because many of them had come to the UK on the ship called HMT Empire Windrush. The only official records of many ‘windrush’ immigrants when they had originally come to the UK were the landing cards which were collected when they disembarked from ships in UK ports. Over subsequent decades these cards were routinely used by British immigration officials to verify dates of arrival for borderline immigration cases. Any one from the Commonwealth, who arrived before 1973 was granted an automatic right to remain, unless they left for more than 2 years. For the next 40 years anyone in that category were never given or asked to provide documentary evidence of their right to remain. In 2009 landing cards were earmarked, by the Labour government , for destruction, as part of a broader clean up of paper records. It was implemented in 2010 by the incoming coalition government. Whistleblowers and retired immigration officers warned managers there would be a problem- these cards were the only record of their arrival. Theresa May was Home Secretary when the hostile environment policy was introduced in October 2012. The idea was to reduce UK immigration figures promised in the 2010 Conservative Manifesto. (See hostile environment policy) In 2018 we had the Windrush scandal. People were wrongly detained, denied legal rights,lost jobs or homes, passports confiscated, denied medical care, threatened with deportation. At least 83 cases cases were wrongly deported -many of those affected had been born British subjects and had arrive in the UK before 1973. These were part of the 'Windrush generation. Since then a hardship scheme has been set up by the Home Office Those classified as illegal immigrants were to be compensated scheme. Very little of the £200 -£570 million set aside has been paid up -just £46,795 ( See Hardship scheme) On 19th March 2020 the Windrush Lessons Learned Review concluded that the Home Office showed an inexcusable ’ ignorance and thoughtlessnes’ and what had happened had been ’ foreseeable and avoidable’. (See W L L Review) November 2020 the Equality and Human Rights Commission said the Home Office had broken the law by failing to obey public-sector equality duties by not considering how the policies affected black members of the Windrush generation. Dexter Bristol and Paulette Wilson are 2 examples of how the ‘Windrush generation’ were seriously let down.