ECA was back to school last week, visiting year 3 and year 5 students at Kingfisher Hall Academy. The school is mixed entry and is located on The Ride in Ponders End. It has an Ofsted rating of “outstanding.” The pupils had recently completed a project on the Windrush, and a number of their works were displayed on the classroom walls.

The pupils were asked to prepare questions in advance of the visit. On Wednesday 13th March, former ECA chair, Paul Riddell, a contributor to Windrush Voices shared his story with year 3 students at Kingfisher Hall Academy. He told them of his journey coming to Edmonton in 1967 from Jamaica, aged 11 and his initial impressions of 1960s London.

The pupils fired a wide range of questions including:

• How old were you when you came to England?
• Did you travel by boat or plane?
• What school did you attend?
• How did you experience racism?
• Did I travel to England by myself?
• What do you think about the Windrush scandal?
• Do you regret coming to England?
• Are you going to go back to Jamaica to live when you retire?

Several of the pupils also read out beautiful poems they had written about the Windrush generation. According to Paul, “I was very impressed with the questions from the pupils. They had clearly taken the time to learn about the history of the Windrush generation. At the end of both sessions, the pupils were shown the passport that I used to enter the UK in 1967 which provoked a lot of laughter.

“There was an excellent relationship between the teachers and pupils which was demonstrated through there interactions with each other. The behaviour of the pupils was exemplary and a credit to the school.”

On Friday 15th March Kamilah McInnis, the author of Windrush Wonders gave a presentation to the year 5, which included reading Evadney Hamilton’s story which the pupils loved. Both events were very successful. The students received both speakers very well and they were ‘buzzing’. They listened eagerly and asked loads of questions.

The year 5 pupils have been studying Windrush so had some prior knowledge, working with class teacher Ms Coffi, who had prepped the work. According to Oveta McInnis, “One of the students later read a poem to us about the Windrush generation, it was very moving. There is some great teaching going on.” Kamilah McInnis is going to be included on their wall of visitors ‘Game Changers’ in the main foyer!