Anti-sectarian RME activities for secondary schools
Activity 3: Leaving Home
Thinking and writing
Learners could be asked to consider the topic of 'Leaving Home' and to imagine themselves as
refugees or migrants. If the learners have studied the play ‘Black Harvest’ by Nigel Gray, then they
could imagine themselves as part of an Irish family during the time of the potato famine. They could
write an account of what their family might be going through due to the famine and how they felt
having to leave their home. Links can be made to other exoduses of people:
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refugee and asylum seekers, forced to leave their homes for a variety of reasons
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the Highland Clearances, where people were forced to leave their homes, to move to the
coast or the industrial cities of the south, or to emigrate entirely.
Role-play
Pupils could be asked to create a role-play or mini-drama that will help people to understand what
happened to the Irish families who had to leave due to the Famine or other refugee and asylum
seekers.
Learners could be asked to consider:
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Were you scared, excited?
Was the journey an easy one?
How were you treated by other people?
What was it like when you arrived at your destination?
Did you make friends?