24/02/2026

Gaining a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Holocaust

To deepen Year 9 students understanding and appreciation of the Holocaust as part of the History curriculum, we welcomed a series of guest speakers from the Holocaust Educational Trust over two days.

This included small classroom workshops and an whole year group assembly to enable students to explore how, and why, the Holocaust has been commemorated in the UK and worldwide. We explored themes linked to the experiences of individuals, communities and nations so students could evaluate this event in ways they had not previously done.

The engaging classroom workshops were led by Debbie Moss who is educator for the Holocaust Educational Trust and author of ‘Angel’s Teeth’ that features real stories and events from the Holocaust. With her in-depth knowledge, she focused on how people remember the Holocaust by looking at different memorials, and this gave students an invaluable insight and better understanding.

For the assembly, we were fortunate to be visited by Peter and Moira Hart. Peter is the son of Kitty Hart Moxon OBE, who survived the horrors of Auschwitz Birkenau extermination camp during the Holocaust. Peter was able to share the testimony on behalf of his mother, who is 100 this year. This was a truly unique experience for students to hear a testimony from a second generation Holocaust survivor. It is often so hard to comprehend that over 1 million people were killed at Auschwitz, but this testimony looked at the human emotion and engagement to remember and educate future generations about the dangers of hatred and intolerance.

Mr Davison, Teacher of History said “The students did themselves proud as they were focused and attentive throughout the sessions and had the confidence to ask some very insightful questions. Year 9 will now have an opportunity to become involved in a wider school project that will link their new found insights into this historic event, with working to keep such lessons of the past alive today.”