Free history-led lesson developed by Professor David Olusoga and Dr Yinka Olusoga

To support Census 2021, Office for National Statistics, together with education resource centre, iChild, have developed the free primary education resource programme Let’s Count! The programme includes 14 cross-curricular resources covering key areas of the English and Welsh primary curriculum. Let’s Count! has achieved accreditation from MEI, NATE and the Geographical Association.

The programme includes the history-led lesson 'Equality, representation and the census', developed by Professor David Olusoga and Dr Yinka Olusoga. In this lesson, children will explore the data about birthplace and ethnic diversity. They will find census data for their own area (and perhaps a contrasting area) about the range of ethnicities and birth places in the local population. They will find out how the information from the earlier census data, alongside data from other historical sources, is being used by historians to uncover the lives and contribution to national life of people from different ethnic backgrounds. Older children will examine how Britain’s changing relationship with the countries of the Empire is reflected in the birthplace information found in census data.

Schools can register with Let's Count! to receive printed resource packs. The resources are also available to download from the Let’s Count! website: