A Post-It note from the Programme Director: 24 April

Dear Colleagues,

You are under extraordinary pressure. In just a matter of weeks, you have had to; change your modes of teaching, run classrooms from your kitchen table, provide pastoral care for your students at a distance while at the same time, maintain your own wellbeing and that of your families. Some of you are putting yourself directly at risk by being in school to provide lessons for vulnerable students and for those whose parents are front-line workers. This is truly commendable and demonstrates how teachers in this country are doing a phenomenal job in prioritising children by keeping their education going.

During this pandemic, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education has been working to produce high quality, stimulating lesson plans with ready-to-go PowerPoint presentations and materials for online usage as well as material for students to work through independently. The material has been informed by feedback from our national network of teachers who responded to a call for guidance on how we can help them teach the Holocaust during these difficult days.

This week, we are supporting teachers with:

A series of six lessons: The Nazi concentration camps. This serves to deepen knowledge and understanding of the Nazi concentration camps leading to deeply probing and significant questions suitable for KS3 history. The series also meet specifications of most GCSE History syllabi.
A self-directed study lesson: Heroic actions of the Holocaust. This is designed for KS3 RE or Citizenship and examines the remarkable actions of individuals who, at considerable risk to themselves, reached out to rescue, hide or facilitated an escape route for men, women and children targeted for murder by the Nazis. It helps students consider what drives individuals and communities to act in certain ways and that even in the darkest of times compassion can shine through. The lesson can be used as a springboard to explore social inclusion, SMSC and BV and issues challenging us today.

Throughout this term we will keep in touch via blogs /twitter and provide free and easily downloadable online resources and student self-directed study lessons to support you to teach this subject and to develop as teachers.