National Holocaust Centre and Museum

What will students see and do?

At the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, primary school pupils can step back in time to Nazi Germany.

They will explore the life of Leo, a young German Jewish boy growing up in 1930s Berlin, by visiting the Nottinghamshire-based museum’s exhibition The Journey.

Everything changes for Leo under Nazi rule. Eventually, his family makes the brave choice to send him to safety in the UK, as a child refugee on the Kindertransport.

Leo’s story raises big questions. What is it like to be seen as ‘different’? What courage does it take to stand up for our friends against bullying?

Taking this journey into one of the most dramatic periods of world history will help pupils think about identity, friendship and kindness in their own lives today.

For secondary and post-16 students, the National Holocaust Centre and Museum ask big questions such as, why does hatred persist? How should we treat others? How do we think for ourselves?

In a world of online hate and conspiracy theories, now more than ever we need to learn the lessons of the Holocaust. Students visiting the Holocaust Exhibition will think critically about individual and societal responsibility as well as why the Holocaust happened.

All of the museum’s programmes, both for primary and secondary schools, enable students to learn from Holocaust survivors, access museum artefacts and objects, and take part in educator-led workshops from a team of former teachers. The workshops are age-appropriate and delivered sensitively and challengingly.

Email bookings@holocaust.org.uk to tell the museum’s team about your needs. If you can’t visit in person, then don’t worry as the outreach education team can visit any school in the country!

How does the trip link to the curriculum?

The museum’s learning programmes are undertaken by 40,000 students a year, from Year 5 to KS5.

Teachers choose the programmes because they link to the history, R.E., English, PSHE and citizenship curriculums. Additionally, many schools choose them because of the Ofsted requirements for enrichment and opportunity and because of the British values learning that their programmes emphasise.

In an age-appropriate and sensitive way, they deliver cutting-edge learning workshops that ask students to understand why the Holocaust happened so that they can be better citizens today.

Students engage with historical sources, consider different interpretations and literature of the past, and reflect on their responsibility today as well as the collective responses of society in the past and today to issues such as discrimination, persecution and refugees.

They also offer additional GCSE workshops for secondary schools, including an English language experience, in which students practise question four in Paper 2 of the AQA English language specification, and a History workshop that enables students to practise a ‘How far do you agree?’-style question, as well as evaluate historical sources for their usefulness.

Lastly, a religious studies workshop sees students investigate the problem of evil within a Holocaust context and examine Jewish responses.

Subjects covered

Details of risk assessment

Full risk assessments for primary and secondary schools are available and will be shared with you before booking.

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