Illustrating the Refugee Crisis

Illustration of child looking out of a window surrounded by scenes of rubble, a boat, a hand reaching out from a train, a row of tents and a train travelling through the night

Illustrating refugee experiences

KS2

Art & Design, Citizenship, English, Geography, History, ICT, PSHE

It is as important as ever that students understand the experience of refugees and asylum seekers. Our resources support you and your students to reflect on the journeys people make, identity, media representation and human rights and needs.

Illustration of two people at a campsite with wooden decking over puddles and bare trees

Our teacher’s notes and image gallery provide starting points for discussions with your class about what being a refugee means to them. This can be followed by one or more of our five activities.

Each activity has a different theme and provides step-by-step instructions. You could use one, or all five. Some are more complex than others: have a look and see what’s right for your class.

All the activities lead to outputs ideal for display, which allows opportunities for whole school awareness-raising or marking of Refugee Week or World Refugee Day.

Teachers’ notes(4.5 MB)Image gallery(20.8 MB)Activity 1 – Journeys Drawn(5.5 MB)Activity 1 – Template(473 KB)Activity 2 – The Big Picture(7.1 MB)Activity 3 – Life in a Refugee Camp(17 MB)Activity 4 – Portrait of a Refugee(20.7 MB)Activity 4 – Questions(13 KB)Activity 4 – Speech Bubbles(2.1 MB)Activity 5 – Emotional Connections(12.3 MB)

Illustration of three children playing with paper aeroplanes in rubble, beneath a sequence of images of a woman crying

These resources were designed and created with illustrator Toya Walker with funding from Arts Council England.