Should old statues be kept? Civil Rights, BLM, Black History Month, Empire, Edward Colston, KS3

The aim of the lesson is for the students to actively investigate the passive world around them. They will look at the current climate around equality and make a reasoned judgment on whether a statue should be removed or not.

It is useful as a stand-alone lesson on current affairs , as part of a scheme of work on Civil Rights, slavery or the British Empire .

Lesson Outline

The lesson begins with the image of Edward Colston’s statue being thrown into the water with questions to start the students thinking about the event.

The lesson moves on to why are statues built in the first place, to help them actively engage with the concept, rather than passively accept they are just ‘something that is there’.

Students are then asked to think about some of the world’s most famous statues and asked for their opinions on them.

The lesson moves on to a discussion on the Edward Colston statue. With students shown a picture and video of the event and asked to reflect on what happened and hypothesise on the cause.

Next is an investigation into Edward Colston himself, students are given one side of the argument and come up with an opinion on his statue, then given the other, with reasoned debate sparked in the class.

Students are then given a quote from the Bible to reflect on and think about how it applies to the lesson.

An investigation will then take place into four famous figures that have statues in London: Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, Mahatama Gandhi, and Winston Churchill.

Students are given information on each of the four to read. They will decide whether or not their statue should be removed.

This part of the lesson can be done with the students working individually or in pairs with the print-out included in this lesson, or as a class, one-by-one with the PowerPoint.

After coming up with an answer for each, the teacher can ask the class their opinions on each of the statues. Why or why not the statue should be removed.

This is a fully resourced lesson including a PowerPoint and Word handouts.