Holocaust Beacon School

We are proud to be recognised as a Holocaust Beacon School, reflecting our sustained commitment to high quality Holocaust education across the academy. This status affirms a whole school approach that deepens students’ understanding of the Holocaust and its continuing significance, underpinned by partnership with a world leading university. Through this work, students are encouraged to become thoughtful, independent, and critical thinkers who engage seriously with moral questions, identity, and responsibility. Our commitment is further evidenced through comprehensive professional development, ensuring all staff are well trained to teach this complex and sensitive history with integrity and purpose.

Studying the Holocaust remains vitally important. As an academy, we are committed to raising awareness not only of the Holocaust but also of more recent genocides, including those in Rwanda and Darfur. Students engage in meaningful reflection through History and Religious Education, as well as through whole school activities linked to Holocaust Memorial Day. These experiences support students in understanding injustice, discrimination, and the consequences of indifference, aligning with our Christian vision for dignity, compassion, and justice.

Creative and reflective learning opportunities further enrich this work. Students engage with survivor testimony and personal narratives, enabling them to encounter lived experience and develop empathy, moral courage, and a deeper understanding of human resilience. Artistic responses play a significant role in this learning, allowing students to explore remembrance, faith, and hope in ways that are deeply personal and spiritually reflective.

We were selected to take part in the 80 Candles project, commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau. Year 10 art students created a powerful candleholder inspired by the story of Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker Wallfisch MBE and her experience as a cellist in Auschwitz’s orchestra. Further projects have deepened students’ engagement with survivor testimony, including work using resources from the My Voice project, enabling thoughtful reflection on memory, injustice, and human resilience.