As part of their first week exploring their new topic, ‘Becoming Bedford’, our Y4 boys heard a fascinating talk on refugees and asylum seekers from Ms Kashi, whose parents fled first Iraq and then Kuwait during the time of Saddam Hussein.
Ms Kashi fled in secret with her parents and brother when she was just four months old. While the family of four happily made it safely to the UK, they feared for their lives many times during their escape, and many times, chance and coincidence worked in their favour to save them.
Many of Ms Kashi’s family fled around the same time to a whole range of countries, splitting her wider family around the world. As she explained to the boys, when you are a refugee seeking asylum, you have to go to whichever country will accept you, as no country wants lots of refugees.
Ms Kashi also explained how her parents found the experience of arriving and setting up a new life in a different country, away from family and friends, somewhere where you don’t know anyone and where even the cold, damp weather is strange. Ms Kashi also told of how her parents missed the familiarity of home, the streets, the people, the common language, and even the smells.
The boys showed excellent listening skills during the talk and asked many brilliant and insightful questions. Then, armed with their newfound knowledge, the boys set off to undertake a piece of empathetic writing, in which they needed to imagine they were refugees arriving in Bedford and explore the many emotions and feelings they were likely to experience.