Following the theme of my most recent Headteacher’s Blog “Thinking of Others”, I would like to congratulate 2 Y9 students, Noah Greenhalgh and Jason Buckley who came to show me the fantastic pieces work that they had created on the theme of the Holocaust memorial.
Their class teacher, Mr Linton had given the class a task to design and make a Holocaust memorial, and then present it to the rest of the class to explain the significance of their design. They needed to outline and how they felt their finished project represented the 'hidden meanings' of their memorial and tie it to specific things they have learned about the Holocaust. It was very clear from the examples created by Noah and Jason that a lot of thought, care, time, and effort had gone into making them.
Noah’s memorial box was called ‘stoic’ and contained some belongings that a Jewish person might have owned before they went into the concentration camp, such as a teddy bear, and a pair of glasses. Noah wanted his memorial box “to symbolise that Jews once lived normal, happy lives before the Nazi’s abused the power they had to make the lives of many people in Germany feel like they were worthless”
Jason’s sculpture was a hand, holding up “The Star of David” which is generally recognised as a symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Jason explained the nails hammered into the wood symbolised how badly treated the Jewish people were and the pain they went through.
I would like to say how proud I am of Noah and Jason’s understanding of what is a very emotive topic and the care and sensitivity that they have shown when designing a memorial for the victims of the Holocaust. Well done boys and please keep up this level of commitment to History.