When lefties say that British history isn't taught properly, omitting huge gaps about colonial crimes, this is what we mean.

I'm teaching Life in the UK history towards my refugees' Citizenship exam at the moment. UK's role in slave trade warrants just these *4* innocuous lines

I will, of course, be dedicating a large section of tomorrow's lesson to my students' new home town of Lancaster's complicity in the transatlantic slave trade.

Teaching British Empire today & not a critical line in syllabus. Amazingly, one of the students had heard the phrase 'The sun never sets on the British Empire.' I explained the meaning, then added & unpacked my own counter-balance: 'The blood never dries in the British Empire.'

I learned a new word in Arabic today while teaching and discussing Empire (a word not found on the syllabus, of course):

Mukhjil. Arabic for 'shameful'.

Taught Uk festivals today. Start with Christian (Xmas, Easter) then onto other religions (Eid, Diwali etc) to show how Britain's a nation of religious tolerance, embracing all faiths (I know!). Then onto bonfire night & why we *still* every year burn a Guy on the bonfire oh boy!

Lovely thing happened today. In today's citizenship class with my Syrian refugee students we were discussing British music, and I asked if they knew any. The usual shout outs - We Will Rock You, Hey Jude, the usual, globally-famous songs. And then...

...from out of nowhere, Kawther pipes up: "Erm, James. Sit Down!" Turns out a teacher at the school their severely disabled son attends plays it in class, so now when the son gets anxious at home they play Sit Down & the little fella calms right down. @wearejames @RealTimBooth

So I sent the students this video on the WhatsApp group afterwards to help illustrate something else we talked about in class: the wonder of the UK music festival (remember those?). #RefugeesWelcome

Tried to teach my Syrian #Refugees students (whose English isn't great in the first place) the First Past the Post electoral system in their citizenship class today. Not sure my diagram helped :-( #RefugeesWelcome

My #Syrian #refugee students sitting their practice Life In the UK test. Been with these guys since arrival in 2017, teaching English & now LIUK. Their exams are on Thursday. If they pass, they'll almost be UK citizens. Honestly, I'm more nervous than they are! #RefugeesWelcome

'Tadreeb' is the most important Arabic word they've taught be. A verb, it means 'to practice' or 'to train'.

Also, 'haz saeid'. Good luck. We have one lesson left before their exams. Tomorrow we're just going to spend the whole lesson going over practice quiz questions; I've taught them all I can now.

Last Life in the UK lesson with my students before their exams on Thursday. I attempted some Arabic. It's terrible (apparently). Means 'good luck'.

My Syrian #refugee students took their Life in the UK exams this morning in Preston, taking a massive step towards becoming British citizens. Waiting for their results to come in is so nerve-wracking. It's like election night waiting for each place to declare #RefugeesWelcome