Vision Schools Scotland

I am delighted to become a patron for Vision Schools Scotland. They carry out fantastic and important work in our schools. I think it is essential to continue educating the next generation on the horrors of the Holocaust and the lessons that must be learnt from it.

I was delighted to be asked if I would accept the offer to become a patron for the hugely important Vision Schools Scotland educational endeavour.

The initiative seeks to formally recognise schools who are devoting time in the classroom towards educating their pupils about the events of the holocaust and the lessons that its horrors impart upon us all.

It is fantastic that councils and schools from across Scotland are engaging with Vision Schools Scotland and that once being made aware of the accreditation, many teachers are aiming to secure the award for their schools.

Year-on-year, Vision Schools Scotland, continues to grow and I am very pleased to be involved with the project as it goes from strength to strength.

Alison Johnstone is a Scottish Green Party politician, who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Lothian region since 2011.

I’m delighted to be a Patron for Vision Schools Scotland as I whole-heartedly believe in the aim of supporting primary and secondary teachers promoting Holocaust education. Through the lessons taught by the Holocaust, we can tackle prejudice and discrimination and foster an approach to Holocaust Education which focuses on anti-Semitism in the modern world. I believe the mission of Vision Schools is an important one in today’s society.

We must never forget but learn from past events and on Monday 27th January – National Holocaust Memorial Day - we must stand together to ensure the likes of the Holocaust never happens again.

Every person is of value. It’s absolutely vital that each generation learns about the atrocities which resulted from evil Nazi policies and their persecution of community groups so I wholeheartedly support Holocaust education for this reason.

Vision Schools Scotland is an excellent programme taught across primary and secondary schools in Scotland. This expertly researched Holocaust education teaches young people about anti-racism, citizenship and religious equality, in addition to looking at the contemporary relevance of the Holocaust.

I’d like to commend Paula Cowan and Henry Maitles on the publishing their book Understanding and Teaching Holocaust Education. UWS's research on the provision of Holocaust education in schools in Scotland has helped shape future United Nation’s programmes, influencing teaching pedagogy in Scotland and further afield in the international community.

Vision Schools Scotland is leading the way in sharing good practice and raising the standard of Holocuast Education in our schools and I am pleased and privileged to be a patron.

From the recorded testimony of survivors such as Marianne Grant and Rev Ernest Levy to the ongoing visits to Auschwitz programme, there is so much excellent material available and good work going on in our classrooms and Vision Schools Scotland is at the forefront of developing the curriculum. Working in partnership with other leading organisations, Vision Schools offers support to teachers and helps provide our pupils with timeless lessons on the importance of combatting prejudice, bigotry, and anti-Semitism. Instead, Holocaust Education puts tolerance, inclusion, and equality at the heart of our teaching on citizenship and human rights. They are lessons we all should learn.

Teaching our children about the abomination of the Holocaust is essential and the Vision Schools Scotland initiative is a way to embed this in our education system, and to make sure children learn about the evil that was perpetrated against the Jewish People and so many others by the Nazi Regime.

Level 1 Vision School status will be awarded to primary and secondary schools that provide evidence that they have met the following criteria:

• Received full support from the Senior Management Team with Holocaust education being embedded in the school.
• Exercised good practice of a sustainable approach to teaching the Holocaust (over a minimum of two consecutive years), with a clear focus on Social Studies, and meaningful connections with other curricular areas in accordance with the purposes and principles of the Scottish curriculum.
• Encouraged responsible citizenship through issues raised in Holocaust education.
• Shared and developed good practice with peers, practitioners, and/or Holocaust education providers, e.g. the Holocaust Educational Trust, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, local libraries and museums.
• Identified Continued Professional Learning in Holocaust education.

Level 2 Vision School status will be awarded to primary and secondary schools who meet the following criteria:

• Achieved Level 1 Vision School status and consistently maintained the criteria for Level 1 Young people taking an active lead as responsible citizens in their school and wider community to share their learning and address issues raised by Holocaust education
• Demonstrated that their students take an active lead in Holocaust education in their school and wider community

• Demonstrated commitment to their staff’s Continued Professional Learning in Holocaust education.

In addition to the written submission, staff and a group of students are required to engage in dialogue with a member of the Vision Schools Team as part of the Level 2 accreditation and evaluation process.

Staff from Level 2 schools will be asked to be external assessors of Level 1 Vision Schools and provide mentoring and support to schools who have applied for the Vision School programme but who have not successfully met all the Level 1 criteria.

Our SCQF level 11 module in Citizenship and Holocaust Education is a distance learning module for educators interested in Citizenship and Holocaust Education in schools, museums or other relevant organisations, that is delivered from September to December.

Discover more about this module by downloading the document below. Invitations will be sent out to schools in the Vision Schools network who would like to apply for a subsidy to enrol on this module.

Citizenship and Holocaust Education

Expression of Interest for 2025 will open in October 2024.

Schools which want to apply for Vision Schools Scotland accreditation are required to express their interest in this before submitting their application.

Expression of Interest should be emailed to visionschools@uws.ac.uk FAO Jane Caffrey including your school name.

Vision Schools Scotland Timeline 2023-2024:

• 16th October 2023 – 31st January 2024: school submit their expression of interest in applying for Vision Schools Scotland accreditation
• 15th April 2024: schools submit Level 1 Vision School Scotland applications
• 13th May 2024: Schools submit Level 2 Vision School Scotland applications  
• End of June: schools receive feedback on their application
• November: successful schools awarded Vision Schools accreditation

A helpful guide from teachers from St Roch's Secondary, Glasgow

Each explained entry should be accompanied by an (electronic) attachment which is clearly labelled and or numbered so that Vision Schools reviewers can confirm that each of  the criteria have been met. Attachments must be Word, pdf, or jpeg documents.

These can include scans of extracts of school development plans, teaching plans showing IDL, lesson plans and  accompanying Powerpoints, samples of student work, evaluation of school practice, and other documents that provide evidence that your school has met the specific outcomes of each of the criteria.

There are three ways to submit:

• Send your complete application, with attachments and an accompanying letter on a USB to Jane Caffrey, Vision Schools Scotland, University of the West of Scotland, Lanarkshire Campus, Stephenson Place, Hamilton International Technology Park, South Lanarkshire, G72 0LH.
• Electronically by email to VisionSchools@uws.ac.uk (FAO Jane Caffrey). First email entitled Application Form. Second email entitled Criteria 1 (with attachments). Third email entitled Criteria 2 (with attachments) and so on until attachments for all criteria are sent
• Electronically by uploading to OneDrive, arranged as in 2 above.  Please share the link with visionschools@uws.ac.uk

Vision Schools Application Forms

Download Level 1 application form (MS Word or pdf formats)

• Vision Schools Scotland Level 1 Application Form (MS Word)
• Vision Schools Scotland Level 1 Application Form (pdf)

Download Level 2 application form (MS Word or pdf formats)

• Vision Schools Scotland Level 2 Application Form (MS Word)
• Vision Schools Scotland Level 2 Application Form (pdf)

Ensure that you have done the following:

• Completed the application form
• Included a brief explanation of your evidence in each of the five criteria boxes at the end of the application form
• Labelled each attachment according to the criteria
• Clearly referenced each attachment in the relevant ‘evidence’ box in the application form

Application forms should be returned to Jane Caffrey at VisionSchools@uws.ac.uk between 10^th April - 15^th May 2023.

Schools will be notified before the end of June of the Team’s decision. The Vision Schools Team will email this information to the lead teacher ( i.e. the teacher who has completed the application).

A member of the Team will visit successful schools to discuss their application and accreditation; and provide constructive written feedback to schools whose application the Team considers to be incomplete or weak. Schools can only apply for Vision Schools accreditation once in one year.

Q1: I have taught the Holocaust for 3 years in my school. Can I collate evidence of my teaching and my students’ learning and forward this to you?

A: No. You require to read the criteria and forward evidence that demonstrates that you have met each of the criteria. Evidence should be clearly labelled C1 (criteria 1), C2 (criteria 2), C3 (criteria 3), etc.

Q2: I teach primary 7 and teach the Holocaust to p7 pupils. Does the Holocaust require to be taught throughout the school to become a Vision School?

A: No. This is not necessary, and the Vision Schools Team would not expect the Holocaust to be taught across the primary school.

Antisemitism

The UK Government’s definition of antisemitism is based on the following working definition adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Addressing Antisemitism Through Education (2018)- European Guidelines from UNESCO and OSCE. Download (PDF)

Holocaust Deinal

The working definition of Holocaust denial and distortion adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Download (PDF)

Holocaust (54 secs) - Dr. David Silberklang, Yad Vashem answers “What is the Holocaust?”. Watch video

Antisemitism (14.52 mins) - You can choose to watch all the sections or choose one from the menu on the left. Antisemitism today (found at 12.10mins, 2.42mins in length) is particularly interesting and has specific relevance for responsible citizenship. Watch video

Holocaust Denial (15.35 mins) - TED Talk by Prof. Deborah Lipstadt, Behind the Lies of Holocaust Denial. Watch video

Holocaust Testimony (2hours 38mins), film from the Shoah Foundation of the testimony of Rev Ernest Levy (1925-2009) a Holocaust survivor who came to live in Scotland. Watch video

Audio recording from the BBC (53 mins 53 sec). Presenter Johnstone McKay speaks to Marianne Grant (1921-2007), a Holocaust survivor who came to live in Scotland. Listen

Courage: 60 Years of the UN Refugee Convention (2 mins) features two people who have come to Scotland in very different circumstances. One of these is Rosa Sacharin who came to Scotland on one of the Kindertransportes. Watch video

Jane Haining : The Scot who died in Auschwitz , a BBC film presented by Sally Magnusson (29 mins). Jane Haining (1897-1944), a Church of Scotland missionary who is the only Scot honoured for risking her life to save Jews during the Holocaust. Watch video

BBC clip of the story of Jane Haining in the Antiques Roadshow (4mins). Watch video

The Holocaust Educational Trust’s ‘Guide for Primary School Teachers’. Download (PDF)

Cowan, P. and Maitles, H. (2017) Understanding and Teaching Holocaust Education, London:Sage

Cowan, P. and Maitles, H. (eds.)(2012)Teaching Controversial Issues in the Classroom, London: Continuum

Sacharin, R.M. (2014) The Unwanted Jew, Tullibody: Diadem Books

IHRA Recommendations on Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust. - Launched in December 2019, these new recommendations are IHRA's response to the transformation in the field of teaching and learning about the Holocaust that has taken place over the last twenty years. Recognising the current challenges that educators require to navigate, the recommendations aim to provide educators with fact-based and educationally sound techniques for teaching the complex and nuanced history of the Holocaust.

The Wiener Holocaust Libary - The Holocaust explained: The Complete Introduction to the Holocaust designed for school.

Ramaswamy, C. (2022) Homelands: The history of a friendship, Edinburgh:  Canongate

The Kindertransports:

This edition of Prism contains many interesting articles that can support IDL in this area. Auld Lang Syne:The Experiences of the Kinder in Scotland, focuses on the Scottish context. (pp. 24-29). Download (PDF)

A Selective, Annotated Guide to Holocaust Websites (2015) in Prism, pp.96-100. Download (PDF)

The Gathering the Voices website contains online oral testimony from men and women who sought sanctuary in Scotland to escape the Holocaust.

Situated in the centre of Glasgow, the Scottish Jewish Archive Centre collects and preserves material relating to the Jewish experience in Scotland over the past 200 years. This includes material during the Holocaust.

Remembering, Rev. Ernest Levy, OBE,  cantor teacher and author (1925-2009)

Film (2012, 16mins) - watch here.

Obituary (Scotsman, 2009 - read here).

Remembering Marianne Grant  (1921-2007)

Newsclip of the launch of the Marianne Grant schools’ resource in 2002 (click here.)

Audio and transcript of Marianne’s daughter, Geraldine Shenkin talking about her late mother (3mins).

Obituary (Herald, 2007 - read here).

Remembering Rosa Sacharin (1925-2019)

In Three nurses: Stories of Refugee Women in Scotland, by Steven Tilley, Rosa is the third ‘remarkable’ nurse (Scottish Review, 2017)

Remembering Ingrid Wuga BEM (1924-2020)

Obituary (Herald, 2020 - read here)

Remembering Judith Rosenberg (1921-2021)

Obituary (Herald, 2021 - read here)

Remembering Ingrid Wuga (1924-2020)

Kindertransport refugee Ingrid Wuga dies at 96 | HeraldScotland

Ingrid Wuga provides testimony on her experience
Ingrid Wuga – Life Before The War – Gathering The Voices Scotland

'White Bird' review - primary teacher.

'White Bird' review - secondary teacher.

'A Nazi in the Family' review - secondary teacher.

'Long Night' review - secondary teacher