Friday 24th January – Holocaust Memorial Day
On this day, we celebrated Holocaust Memorial Day; 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Across the school, we streamed the live webcast to all students between 10am and 11am. The live webcast was by a survivor called Susan Pollack, a Hungarian born lady who not only survived Auschwitz-Birkenau, but also survived the death march to Bergen-Belsen before being liberated by the British in 1945. She later found out that her mother was sent straight to the gas chamber on their arrival. A harrowing tale but a very important one in order to remember the victims. This live stream was shown to Year 9 to 10. Year 7 to 8 watched an older webcast due to the nature of Susan’s story. 
The feedback was overwhelmingly positive from staff and students. This will hopefully be remembered in the same way in 2021.

Friday 14th February – Palace Theatre Redditch – Year 11 History
This was a trip that staff and students were looking forward to, a revision day but delivered through the eyes of the theatre. The day was split into two sessions.  In the morning, students watched ‘Hitler on trial’, which interrogated key witnesses in a court drama, to answer the question of ‘Were Hitler’s actions deliberately put in place to start a war?’ This was followed by assessment marking and feedback from a lead examiner.

In the afternoon, students watched a drama on ‘Medicine’, which reviewed medical theories from the Middle Ages up to modern medicine. Staff and students agreed that this drama in particular was brilliantly delivered and very amusing, a little bit like watching a live performance of Horrible Histories! This was also followed by assessment marking and feedback by a lead examiner.
It was a great day, and one that will help students in their knowledge and understanding of these very important aspects of history.