Holocaust Memorial Week: Monday 22nd January to Friday 26th January 2024
Dear Parents and Carers
Hanham Woods Academy is a Beacon School for Holocaust education. This is a scheme run by University College London in which we became involved in 2019. Although much of the Beacon School programme is about developing powerful schemes of work relating to the Holocaust (in this school, principally in History lessons, but also in Drama and English), the Beacon School programme has wider-ranging aims as well. These aims include embedding Holocaust education within a school’s ethos and demonstrating the value of teaching and learning about the Holocaust to broader educational values such as SMSC; Global Learning; active, democratic citizenship; and pupils’ development of independent and critical thinking. Holocaust memorial week is, therefore, a very important week for the Academy and its students.
This year we will be recognising Holocaust Memorial throughout the week through Tutor Time and assemblies led by Mr Singleton and at the start of lessons with specific content linked to lessons created by the History Department.
Holocaust Memorial Day takes place at the end of the week on Saturday 27th January 2024; on this day we will be encouraging students to take a few moments to remember those who were murdered for who they were and to stand against prejudice and hatred today. We are asking students to light a candle at at home, at 4pm, and safely putting this in your window. At 4.05pm students can share this act with the nation by uploading a photo of their candle on social media, using the hashtags #HolocaustMemorialDay and #LightTheDarkness. Students can also share this with us on our Twitter page @HanhamWoods.
If you have any question about the content or would like to find out more, please do not hesitate to contact myself, your child’s Pastoral or Academic Lead.
Finally, if you would like to take part in the Holocaust Memorial Day national online commemoration yourself, please follow this link: https://www.hmd.org.uk/ukhmd/
Yours Sincerely
Mrs N Hurrell | Associate Assistant Principal (Personal Development)
