Using the popular Britkid website, this activity focuses on the different views that we may each have of where we live, and the relationship between identity and place.

KEY QUESTION: How do we interact with our local place?

Background

The Britkid website (see tab right for link) was developed by Professor Chris Gaine, in collaboration with Comic Relief and with EU funding, and is aimed at:

“young people who do not live or go to school in areas which are ethnically mixed.. to engage and inform a group which is mostly not from minority ethnic groups themselves”.

However, this site can and has been successfully used with learners who live and go to school in any area including those that are ethnically diverse.

It is a great website for learners to simply explore, and engage with, but it can also be used to ask deeper questions. Each character on the site has their own way of interacting with their place, and their map reflects this.

Activity

Encourage learners to explore the site, and choose a few characters to learn more about. They can then imagine that they too live in Britchester and begin to write / build their own mini-site. This can be done on paper if necessary but it would be better to use a program like MS Publisher.

What local places would be on your map?

What might you say in your main page about where you and your family have come from?