Exploring & Belonging in Hull Resources
MESH’s Exploring and Belonging project was based in Hull between January and May 2024. During this period we collaborated with partners Talking Hull, Welcome House and the Hull Libraries to provide sessions for a group of asylum seeker and refugee participants. We were also grateful for the support of the Hull History Centre.
On this page, you will find information on Hull and materials for teachers wanting to use our resources in class. Hull has become home to many people seeking asylum in the UK, fleeing persecution and war in other parts of the world. Some of these people took part in the Exploring and Belonging project, researching the history of Hull and especially the parts of the city they value and identify with, places that help them to feel that they belong in Hull.
From the places researched as part of the project, three in particular have been chosen by participants as the focus for research: Welcome House, Pearson Park and Spring Bank. Follow the links below for access to bespoke reading resources at E1 and E2+ level, and associated audio-visual resources on the three sites of local heritage identified by our particpants.
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Welcome House...Click here for E-Reading Resources
A community centre on the corner of Wright St and Prospect St which provides crucial support for refugees and asylum seekers. This is an ex-1970s council building, built on a site where houses stood prior to the Hull Blitz of WW2. We looked at the census and the names and occupations of some of the residents – a clothier and 2 surgeons.
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Pearson Park...Click here for E- Reading Resources
A park near the city centre. It was donated to the people of Hull by Zachariah Pearson, a sea captain, philanthropist and one-time mayor of Hull who became bankrupt. Participants valued the park as a place to relax and restore their physical and mental health.
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Spring Bank...Click here for E-Reading Resources
A road into the centre of Hull. Many of the original nineteenth century houses remain. We saw how the area has changed, and how it has become a centre for multicultural living in Hull. There is now a mosque on Spring Bank, and many international shops, including Kurdish cafes and a barber. Participants felt welcome on Spring Bank because of the diversity of the area.
This slide set offers ideas for using the Hull reading resources in the classroom. You can download or simply show the slides from this page in class. The slides include activities and links to worksheets, There are 23 slides. Use in conjunction with teacher notes and worksheets.
These teaching notes provide further guidance for classroom delivery. You can download and adapt, or view them here for a quick overview. The notes suggest ways to help learners interact more deeply with the reading resources by focusing on key vocabulary and information within it, and then encouraging them to explore their own sense of belonging in the area where they live. Including suggestions for activities and approaches for use with learners at different levels, from pre-Entry to Entry 3 +. You can build these suggestions into your lesson plans.
Our Keywords list provides support for those reading our reading resources. They are embedded for a quick view or you can download them via the link below. The keywords list has a separate tab for each of the three sites in our resources: Welcome House, Pearson Park and Spring Bank. They include audio for pronuciation support, as well as sample sentences deploying keywords.
This slide set offers select information about Hull’s history for teachers to explore with their learners, along with links and videos for additional support. The focus here is on Hull’s history as a port and a site of migration and mobility in the 19th and early 20th Century.
Acknowledgement
Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Exploring & Belonging is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to run sessions for refugees and asylum seekers to enable them to explore, discuss and write about what is of value as local heritage in the place they live in Yorkshire & Humber. These resources have been generated by participants in these sessions, in collaboration with the MESH team. This project has also been supported by Migration Yorkshire.

Copywrite Statement
The Exploring and Belonging resources on the Learning English Plus website are provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, unless otherwise stated.
You may share and adapt these materials for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit MESH Exploring & Belonging Project and the National Lottery Heritage Fund UK, and distribute any adaptations under the same license.
For further information please contact info@yhmesh.org.uk