As part of our inter-disciplinary learning, we are learning about Force K6 and the British Indian Army.  We are focusing on the contribution of the British Indian Army in World War 2.

To develop our understanding of South East Asia’s contribution to Glasgow, we visited Scotland Street museum.  They have an exhibition set up called GlaswegAsians.

We learned about the contribution to work and society that people from South East Asia brought to Scotland. Many men would take their suitcases and go from door to door selling things like radios. This was called pedalling. The women would sow their own outfits using sewing machines.  Men became bus drivers and sometimes worked 72 hour shifts. When people had enough money, they opened up their own businesses like fabric shops and restaurants.

Some people chose to work in the police, some people worked in politics. The Indian workers union Glasgow was also started because people who came from South Asia felt they weren’t been treated the same as Scottish workers.

After this, we worked in groups and chose an item to create a dance about.  This was fun but very embarrassing.

We also had the chance to record some of our ideas in the recording studio using a voice recorder app on the iPad, which was very  cool.

For our last activity, we imagined we had moved to a new country.  We had to come up with a business idea and open a business in the new country.  This was hard because we had to say why we were opening the business – was it because of personal interest, a family tradition or to bring something new to our new country. There were lots of great ideas, from fabric shops to gaming shops. We used out artistic talents to create what our shop front would look like.