Anne Frank Exhibition
During the first two weeks of October, Bow School was involved in the Anne Frank Trust UK’s London Schools Programme, which aims to use Anne Frank’s story to bring the message of the Holocaust to the 21st century.
The programme was based on the highly acclaimed exhibition Anne Frank: A History Today, teaching students an overview of World War II, the Holocaust and Anne Frank’s personal experiences. Presenting the exhibition were 14 Year 9 students that had been trained by two fantastic members of the Anne Frank Trust UK. In pairs, these Year 9 students taught the entire cohort of Year 7, 8 and 9s (approximately 350 students) over the course of the two weeks. This was followed by workshops provided to the three year groups, exploring social issues of prejudice and discrimination, and promoting community cohesion. In addition, the Phoenix class and two Year 11 classes also visited the exhibition, to support their learning in a range of their subjects. A highlight of the event was the visits from Stebon and Bygrove Primary Schools, bringing an estimated 90 additional students to be taken on a tour by the Year 9 guides.
The end of the two week programme was marked by a fantastic event involving two Holocaust survivors. Firstly, two of our fantastic Year 9 guides, Samid Ahmed and Syed Aklak, gave a tour of the exhibition to the Friedler family, who support the Anne Frank Trust’s work. Leo Friedler was sent away from Germany on the Kindertransport during the war, while his late Sybilla Friedler was in hiding five doors down from Anne Frank during the Holocaust. Finally, the brilliant Freddier Knoller, a Holocaust survivor and inspiration speaker, gave a talk to a number of students, staff and parents. By telling the story of his life, Freddie helped to make highlight the issues of discrimination and prejudice in society, whilst making everyone smile with his personal anecdotes of events. All in all, the visit of the Anne Frank Trust to Bow School was a great success and has forged a relationship that will allow for similar events to happen in future years.
