Part two
Suggested inquiry questions: What can we learn about Noor from her photograph?
Potential activities: Explore a photograph; watch an actor in the role of Noor; and create the WAAF uniform.
Download: Lesson pack
Photographs are a fun way to get pupils to engage with sources without the challenge of difficult text. They can help pupils develop observational skills and an understanding of the difference between past and present, or similarity and difference. Describing photographs and what they reveal can also help pupils to develop confidence in language skills.
Tasks
Things to discuss
What can you see in the photograph? Ask the pupils to tell you everything that they can see in the photograph e.g. a hat with badge/medallion.
Now encourage them to make inferences about what they’ve spotted e.g. the hat looks official so maybe this person is dressed in uniform. Using these observations and inferences, ask the pupils to explain who they think the woman is and what job she does, when her photograph was taken and why they think she was photographed.
A speech to text app on iPads could be used here for the pupils to record their ideas independently.
Play video 3: Noor Khan in England
Once your pupils have fed back their ideas, explain that the lady in the photograph was called Noor Khan and that she lived during the time of the Second World War. Explain that an actress playing the role of Noor is going to tell us a little bit about who Noor Khan was and what she did.
Suggested follow-up questions:
What did you find out about Noor’s early life? Why did she come to Britain and join the WAAF in 1940? Noor has been interviewed and accepted to work for the SOE. The role of the SOE is top secret! But can the pupils work out what job Noor will be doing for the SOE? How has she found her tests and exercises so far?
Look like a WAAF member
You could get hold of some costumes here for the pupils to look at and try on. A WAAF hat or similar with badge, a black tie, some brass buttons and even a haversack.
Background
Noor Khan was born in Moscow but spent much of her early life growing up in Paris. Her father was an Indian Muslim and a teacher of Sufism, and her mother an American. Noor’s father died in 1927 and Noor took responsibility for her mother and younger siblings. She studied at the Sorbonne and began a career as a writer, publishing stories and poetry for children.
In 1940, when France was invaded by the Nazis during the Second World War, Noor and her family escaped to England. She joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) and was trained as a wireless operator. Noor was subsequently recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and in June 1943 was sent to France to work as a radio operator for the secret ‘Prosper’ network.
Back to top
Suggested inquiry questions: What can we learn about Noor from her photograph?
Potential activities: Explore a photograph; watch an actor in the role of Noor; and create the WAAF uniform.
Download: Lesson pack
The National Archives
