UCL Beacon Schools in Holocaust education

“A year on, the programme has gone way beyond my expectations. The impact… has been quite incredible. I have learnt so much! The highlight of a 29 year career.” History teacher

TRANSFORMING TEACHING & LEARNINGThe UCL Beacon School in Holocaust Education programme is the most effective teacher development programme in Holocaust education in England. A partnership in which the world’s leading university for education helps schools to transform their pupils’ understanding of this complex and emotionally-challenging subject.

UCL Institute of EducationCentre for Holocaust Education

Table of ContentsWhat is the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education Beacon School Programme?..............................................................................................................2Aims...........................................................................................................................2Why would a school apply?....................................................................................3Mandatory key programme phases.......................................................................4

I: Preparation, May - July 2016..................................................................................4II: Induction, mapping, orientation, September-October 2016..................................4III: London Residential Seminar, 22-25 October 2016..............................................4IV: Create & teach improved Schemes of Work, October 2016 – July 2017..............5V: Four day study visit to Poland, 5-8 May 2017.......................................................5VI: Dissemination, June – July 2017...........................................................................5VII: Teaching the Scheme of Work & Impact Evaluation, September 2017...............6

How to apply.............................................................................................................8What qualifies a school for Beacon School status?............................................8

Commitment, creativity and innovation...................................................................8Lead Teacher............................................................................................................8Senior Leadership Team...........................................................................................9

Roles and responsibilities.......................................................................................9Lead Teacher............................................................................................................9Senior Leadership Team.........................................................................................11UCL Centre for Holocaust Education.......................................................................12

What is the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education?............................................14

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What is the UCL Centre for Holocaust EducationBeacon School Programme?

Each year, 20 secondary schools embark on one of the most ambitious school development programmes in England.

Expenses-paid four day residential seminar in London

Expenses-paid teacher study visit to sites of the Holocaust in Poland

Free CPD for school staff Exceptional teaching and

learning materials Ongoing support from the world’s leading university for education.

Free of chargeAll aspects of the programme are provided to schools free of charge, including hotels, flights, excursions, meals, CPD, venues, and university expertise and consultancy.

Aims The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education works with schools to enable young people to deepen their understanding of the significance of the Holocaust and to explore its relevance for their own lives and the contemporary world.Developing this area of the school curriculum has also been shown to have significant benefits for broader educational goals, for pupil engagement and achievement, and for teaching and learning across a range of subject disciplines. The programme seeks:• To raise the status of Holocaust education in schools,

embedding it within schools’ ethos and ensuring it becomes a priority area in the curriculum.

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UCL is ranked the world's top university for educationQS World Rankings 2014 and 2015

• To support schools in the development of more powerful Schemes of Work, linking aims, outstanding educational resources and advanced pedagogical approaches to clearer understandings about pupil progress and robust forms of assessment.

• To demonstrate the value of teaching and learning about the Holocaust to broader educational values such as SMSC; Global Learning; active, democratic citizenship; and pupils’ development of independent and critical thinking. The focus on teaching and learning about the Holocaust can provide a lens through which generic teaching and learning improve.

• To establish Beacon Schools as dynamic hubs within school networks, models of how teaching and learning about the Holocaust can make a major contribution to young people’s education.

Why would a school apply?

This is an opportunity for your school to partner with the world’s top-rated university for education1, to raise the quality of learning and expectations in your school, and to help your students to become more engaged in their own learning and more independent, critical thinkers.• Enhance your school’s identity by being at the forefront of a bold,

national initiative. • Benefit from the Centre’s national research on student

understandings, gaining insights into issues of progression and assessment for learning.

• Transfer expertise developed on the programme to other school areas, subjects, and disciplines.

• Enable your school’s Lead Teacher to develop their leadership potential.

• Develop school expertise in teaching about the Holocaust, with strong benefits to broader educational goals, helping to make your SMSC and Global Learning provision outstanding.

• Deepen understanding about the importance of relating educational aims, pupil progress and assessment in coherent and effective Schemes of Work.

1 UCL Institute of Education was ranked first for education in the 2014 and 2015 QS World Rankings; it was also rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted on all criteria at every level for initial teacher training

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• Strengthen your school’s internal quality assurance mechanisms and benefit from external verification of existing best practice.

The 2015 report of the Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission found examples of excellent practice,

including:

“World-class research, teacher education… and ‘Beacon Schools’ programmes pioneered by the

UCL Centre for Holocaust Education”2

• Inspire, invigorate and motivate school staff. Your wider staff body will benefit from free CPD at a local venue on a date convenient for you.

• The four day London residential seminar and the study visit to Poland will deepen the Lead Teacher’s substantive knowledge, relate learning about the Holocaust to wider curriculum issues, and immerse her/him in advanced pedagogical approaches, with clear benefits to wider teaching.

• Enhance relationships with local schools through collaboration and sharing of good practice with your local network.

• Engage in cutting edge pedagogy/learning theory, and develop research informed innovative practice.

• Share and gain from the expertise and experience of other school colleagues across the country as the programme builds a critical mass of school resources and expertise through the Beacon Schools network.

Mandatory key programme phases:I: Preparation: May – July 2016 Following acceptance onto the programme, Lead Teachers map the school’s existing provision of teaching and learning about the Holocaust, speaking to colleagues to find out where and when the Holocaust is covered, with what aims, content and resources, and how young people’s progression is monitored and assessed. New Beacon Schools also work with colleagues from local schools and UCL Centre for Holocaust Education staff to schedule a date for the teacher CPD that will run in the coming academic year.

2 Britain’s Promise to Remember – The Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission Report, (2015), p.114

II: Induction, mapping, orientation: September-October 2016 Lead teachers and SLT participate in an online welcome session, 16:00-17:30 on Tuesday 13 September 2016.SLT communicate the importance of Holocaust education in their School Improvement Plan, to governors, staff, pupils and parents.Beacon Schools begin to develop a network of schools who will participate in a local CPD day later in the academic year, paid for and run by the Centre for Holocaust Education.Friday 21 October 2016: Half-day orientation for SLT and Lead Teachers at IWM London.

III: London Residential Seminar: 22-25 October 2016Lead Teachers from our 20 Beacon Schools participate in an intensive four day professional development seminar in Holocaust education at the world’s leading university for education, UCL Institute of Education. This seminar will deepen substantive knowledge about the Holocaust and explore in depth crucial issues relating to curriculum design, including: Aims: Why is it important for young people to know about the Holocaust?Content: Given limited curriculum time, what is essential for young people’s understanding of the Holocaust?Research: What does the Centre’s national study of young people’s thinking, knowledge and understanding tell us about how they make sense of the Holocaust? What are the implications for teaching?Pedagogy: What classroom approaches are effective – what do we know from research into learning theory about how students make progress in their understanding?Assessment: What does it mean to ‘get better’ at knowing the Holocaust? What do we want students to learn from this new knowledge? How can we measure students’ attainment in these areas?

IV: Create draft Schemes of Work (SoW), October 2016 – March 2017A range of curriculum models will be developed across the Beacon Schools, specific to the particular contexts of schools and learners. Lead teachers will be supported by a mentor from the staff at the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education. Draft schemes of work to be submitted to the Centre by 31 March 2017, ahead of the Poland study visit. This is not expected to be a final version –, but should include substantial evidence of thinking and reflection on aims, content, progression and assessment in light of the London residential, UCL Centre for Holocaust Education

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resources and pedagogy, and CPD input.

V: Four day study visit to Poland, 5-8 May 2017This visit will inform and enrich the development of the Schemes of Work that form the core of Phase III. During the visit, your Lead Teacher will explore the diversity of pre-war Jewish life; the struggle for survival in the Warsaw ghetto; the dilemmas and responses of the victims; the death camp of Treblinka; the legacy and significance of the Holocaust; what do we choose to remember and what to forget; the pedagogy of site visits and the methodologies of learning at authentic sites.

VI: Dissemination and Schemes of Work edited/refined and planning for next steps, June – July 2017Lead Teachers edit and refine their Schemes of Work in response to feedback from UCL mentors and taking account of themes and issues explored on the Poland study visit. These refined Schemes of Work need to be submitted to UCL mentors by Friday 14 July 2017.Each of the 20 Beacon Schools also share their Schemes of Work, approaches and materials with five partner schools in their locality, ensuring that a further 100 schools across the country directly benefit from their work. It is appreciated that the first year of the Beacon School programme may involve teaching or trialling of the Scheme of Work, or individual lessons, and that the final, revised Scheme of Work may only be taught in full during the following year.We hope your experience of the UCL Beacon School programme in the first year will be such that you elect to develop it further. UCL Centre for Holocaust Education offers schools the opportunity to retain their Beacon School status for a further three year designation, linked to an Impact Evaluation visit during the second year. Senior leaders will be approached to consider extending their status, thus further embedding their Holocaust education and partnership with UCL and the Centre for Holocaust Education by participating in the re-designation process (see Phase VI, below).

VII: Teaching the Scheme of Work and Impact Evaluation (optional)(Year 2, from Sept 2017)Each of the UCL Beacon Schools will ensure their final Scheme of Work is consistently taught in relevant departments, faculty, or across their school

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in the 2017-18 academic year, and that this will be reviewed and, where appropriate, further refined.

In addition, those schools who wish to maintain their UCL Beacon School status will arrange with the university for an Impact Evaluation visit during the second year (to take place while the new Holocaust Scheme of Work is being taught). Completion of this Impact Evaluation will confer a further three year designation as a UCL Beacon School.

The impact evaluation visit will involve meetings with all key stakeholders, an analysis of any available data and an observation of a lesson from the Scheme of Work, if possible. It is intended that this will be based in part upon the successful Challenge Partners model of peer review and that Lead Teachers from other Beacon Schools will form part of the reviewing team.

The review team will produce an Impact Evaluation Report which will be shared with the school providing valuable external verification evidence for senior leaders, governors, Ofsted inspections and parents, but also a useful internal quality assurance and ongoing CPD opportunity. The visit is designed to externally validate good practice; to identify and celebrate areas of excellence; acknowledge/ suggest areas for further development; and to offer strategies, opportunities and guidance where appropriate for continued improvement through coaching, CPD opportunities etc. The report will include an outline of ‘What went well… Even better if…’ and opportunities for ongoing development and support from the university.

The impact evaluation has been carefully designed to be rigorous and robust, but light touch visit; to offer credible evidence of impact; cast a critical friend’s eye over the last year; and champion and support Lead Teachers and colleagues in furthering their practice, innovation and opportunities.

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From the outset UCL Beacon School status was conceived as a partnership between university, Lead teacher and SLT – and this remains central to

the impact evaluation visits. We want to see and recognise the impact of this partnership on the young people in classrooms across the country, acknowledge and celebrate bold leadership and innovative Lead Teachers tackling such a complex history in their classroom, and continue our relationships with UCL Beacon Schools to further enhance teaching and learning, CPD, and leadership opportunities.

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How to applyPlease carefully read the information below, then complete the accompanying application form, and return to Ashleigh Thomson at holocaust@ioe.ac.uk by Friday 22 April 2016.Schools will be informed whether their application is successful by the end of the day Friday 27 May 2016.

What qualifies a school for UCL Beacon School status?

Commitment, creativity and innovationA UCL Beacon School is committed to the view that the Holocaust is a critically important part of young peoples’ education while appreciating the complex challenges that the Holocaust raises as a school subject. It should demonstrate an existing commitment to the importance of Holocaust education as well as a keenness to embrace creativity and innovation in the curriculum.Schools chosen for the programme are not expected already to have exemplary Holocaust education embedded into their school teaching and learning programme. Being part of the UCL Beacon School programme is a process rather than an end point. What is required is a commitment to increasing expertise and teaching standards to advanced levels. Lead TeacherIt is important that each UCL Beacon School identifies an experienced and dynamic Lead Teacher who will take the project forward and coordinate Holocaust education at your school. The key aim for this teacher is to embed UCL pedagogical approaches, teaching and learning materials into their schools, developing a Scheme of Work to evidence how this has been achieved. As such, the Lead Teacher should already have completed the Centre’s full day CPD Unpacking the Holocaust and, ideally, some of the Centre’s twilight CPD sessions.The Lead Teacher should work closely with colleagues across the school to consider how different departments may contribute to young people’s understanding about the Holocaust, their Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development and Global Learning.We would like UCL Beacon Schools to be working at Master’s level, so preference may be given to those who have already completed or are

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working on the UCL Masters Module: The Holocaust in the Curriculum, a 10 week online course that is fully funded and incurs no cost to the teacher or the school. If this module, which is designed to work around a busy teaching job, has not yet been completed then we anticipate that the Lead Teacher and/or another school colleague will embark upon it by the summer term 2017.In the unlikely event that a nominated Lead Teacher is unable to complete all aspects of the programme through, for example, long term sickness or a change in jobs/ roles following acceptance onto the programme, we require that a second be named who is willing to step into their place. This is to ensure the school’s full participation on the programme; not least because UCL Beacon School status lies with the whole school and is not confined to specific staff, and to ensure that funding in the school’s development does not go to waste. Senior Leadership TeamThe school must nominate a member of its Senior Leadership Team to support the Lead Teacher within the UCL Beacon School, making it possible for them to attend all elements of the programme; giving the Lead Teacher time to develop the school’s Scheme of Work and encouraging colleagues within the school to explore how they can become involved, contribute to and benefit from this work. The SLT will ensure that the Lead Teacher’s work is identified, recognised and supported in their performance management/ appraisal process. SLT will assist the Lead Teacher in reaching out to and building a network of at least five other secondary schools, advocating the wider benefits of developing strong Holocaust education and inviting teachers from these schools to join members of your own teaching staff on a free Professional Development Day provided by UCL in your locality. The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education will cover all costs of this day (venue hire, meals, and educational materials).We ask that you also name a second member of SLT who will take on this responsibility should the nominated person be unable to continue in this crucial role due to illness or other unforeseen eventuality.

Roles and responsibilities

Lead TeacherAs Lead Teacher, with the support of your school’s SLT, your primary commitments will be to:

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• Take responsibility for the development of Holocaust education across your school, advancing your leadership skills, promoting good practice and exploring the potential of whole school initiatives and cross-curricular approaches. You will help to raise teaching standards and pupil achievement, and contribute significantly to making your school’s SMSC and Global Learning outstanding.

• Ensure that your role in the UCL Beacon School programme is discussed, explored and supported in your performance management/ appraisal.

• Participate in an after-school, online welcome session (16:00-17:30 on 13 September 2016) to ‘virtually meet’ other Beacon School Lead Teachers, SLT and the Centre’s team, to learn more about the programme, and to clarify aims, roles, and expectations.

• Join an expenses-paid, half-day orientation session (together with a member of your Senior Leadership Team) at Imperial War Museum London on the afternoon of Friday 21 October 2016, on how the Beacon School programme can raise standards in your school, have deep impact on your students’ learning, and promote the development of your school’s SMSC provision.

• Attend an expenses-paid, four-day Residential Seminar at UCL Institute of Education. You will stay in high quality hotel accommodation in central London, and all meals and costs of the seminar will be covered by the programme. At the seminar you will:

o Collaborate with leading experts in Holocaust education, pedagogy, assessment and curriculum design, sharing your own experience and good practice and working together to raise teaching standards in your school.

o Explore how you can make your school’s SMSC and Global Learning outstanding through more powerful, meaningful and effective Holocaust education.

o Consider how you can empower young people with deeper knowledge and the capacity for more critical thinking; help pupils to make genuine progress in their understanding of the Holocaust; deepen their knowledge, become more independent and critical thinkers, and construct meaning for themselves.

• Take part in a powerful, intensely-moving Study Visit to sites of the Holocaust in Warsaw and its environs, with flights, travel within

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Poland, excursions, entrance fees, hotel accommodation and meals all paid for by the programme.You will deepen your understanding not only of key issues connected with the Holocaust but also of pedagogical approaches to learning at authentic sites that will be directly transferrable to other school visits.

• Draw upon the experience of the London Residential Seminar and the Study Visit to Warsaw and, with the support of experts from the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, review and develop your Scheme of Work, embedding the Centre’s pedagogical approaches and high quality teaching materials, adapted to your school context and the learning needs of your students.

• Arrange a date for UCL to provide colleagues from your own school and those of at least five other nearby secondary schools with a free, full-day CPD Unpacking the Holocaust.

• Contact at least five other secondary schools, to establish and build up your Beacon School local network. As well as inviting them and their staff to attend the free CPD session, you will also share the ideas and experiences that underpin your newly developed Scheme of Work.

• With time permitting, devise ways for tangible/ measurable dissemination of good practice, such as contributions at Subject Association conferences; writing a paper; or showcasing students’ work to parents, governors, or other school communities.

• Should your school seek continued designation as a UCL Beacon School beyond the first year then you will undertake to fully participate in the Impact Evaluation during the second year, and will continue to revise and refine your provision of Holocaust education in line with its recommendations. There may also be opportunities for you to join a reviewing team visiting other Beacon Schools as part of their Impact Evaluation exercise (optional).

School Leadership Team

The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education Beacon School programme is known to have the potential to contribute to whole-school development, so the support and engagement of SLT is critical. The nominated SLT member will:

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• Include the development of Holocaust education in your School Improvement Plan.

• Incorporate the UCL Beacon School programme as an element of the Lead Teacher’s Performance Management/ Appraisal, whether through formal targets, CPD support or at the very least through formal acknowledgement of their leadership and development of this initiative within the school.

• Participate in an after-school online welcome session (16:00-17:30 on 13 September 2006) to ‘virtually meet’ other Beacon School Lead Teachers, SLT and the Centre’s team, to learn more about the programme, and to clarify aims, roles, and expectations.

• Join your Lead Teacher on a half-day orientation session on the afternoon of Friday 21 October 2016 at the Imperial War Museum, London, on how the UCL Beacon School programme can raise standards in your school, have deep impact on your students’ learning, and promote the development of your school’s SMSC and Global Learning provision.

• Encourage your Head teacher/ Principal, governors, parents, teachers, support staff and students to understand the goals and activities of the UCL Beacon School status and to explore with them how they can become involved, contribute to, and benefit from this work.

• Reach out to a network of at least five other schools, encouraging the Lead Teacher to support you in the work to build a local network, explaining to these schools the benefits of developing strong Holocaust education and inviting them to attend the free CPD led by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education.

• Support the Lead Teacher in attending all elements of the programme, and allocate time for the Lead Teacher to develop the school’s Scheme of Work in Holocaust education.

• Work with the school’s CPD coordinator to ensure that designated Beacon School dates (for CPD/ meetings etc.) are diarised and that cover is facilitated.

• Drive commitment for CPD in Holocaust education within the school and across the network and inculcate a culture of sharing good practice.

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• Should your school seek continued designation as a UCL Beacon School beyond the first year then you will undertake to fully participate in the Impact Evaluation during the second year, and will continue to revise and refine your school’s provision of Holocaust education in line with its recommendations. There may also be opportunities for you to join a reviewing team visiting other Beacon Schools as part of their Impact Evaluation exercise (optional).

UCL Centre for Holocaust Education

UCL recognises that excellent practice is best achieved in partnership with innovative and creative schools and undertakes to:

• Provide the online welcome session; half-day orientation; four-day London Residential Seminar; CPD session at the Beacon School and the Study Visit to Poland free of charge.

• Pay all applicable costs of flights, hotels, venue hire, meals, lecture and workshop fees, and educational materials throughout the year-long programme.Please note this does not include supply cover, transport to and from London for the half-day orientation and London Residential seminar and travel costs to and from the Lead Teachers home/work address to the UK airport for flights to and from Poland.

• Work closely with Lead Teachers to advance their leadership skills, enhance specialist knowledge, and develop advanced teaching approaches, enabling them to play a key role within their schools and support their career development.

• Provide expert advice and guidance, sharing research findings from our national study into how young people make sense of the Holocaust, and the implications for teaching and learning.

• Provide detailed guidance and support for the development of Schemes of Work, including visits to each UCL Beacon School to offer friendly advice in the implementation of new ideas and resources and to consider key issues of aims, content, pedagogy, progression and assessment.

• Provide a full day of CPD free of charge to UCL Beacon School teachers and those from their network schools, covering all costs for venue hire, meals, refreshments, educational resources and the travel and accommodation of UCL Centre for Holocaust

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Education staff.

• Offer additional free twilight CPD sessions for UCL Beacon Schools and their networks on a range of issues relating to effective Holocaust education. These will be free of charge with expenses paid by the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, including an evening food and wine reception.

• Offer free access to the MA online module The Holocaust in the Curriculum to UCL Beacon School Lead Teachers and their colleagues who meet the application criteria.

• Share new resources and educational activities with UCL Beacon Schools and offer opportunities to pilot new teaching and learning materials.

• Promote the work of the UCL Beacon Schools through networks and communication channels.

• Undertake Impact Evaluation visits during the second year of the programme, and make a decision on the ongoing UCL Beacon School status for those schools keen to extend their designation for a further three years.

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What is the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education?

The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, established in 2008, is part of University College London, the UK’s foremost institution for educational research, theory and practice and rated the world’s leading university for education in the 2014 and 2015 QS World Rankings. UCL Institute of Education has been judged Outstanding by Ofsted at every level and on every criteria of Initial Teacher Education, and was given the prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2015, the highest award for any UK university in recognition of world class excellence.UCL Centre for Holocaust Education combines extensive research into classroom needs with a teacher development programme and effective educational resources specifically designed to meet these challenges.This is the first time anywhere in the world that a Holocaust education programme has been so responsive to the needs of the classroom, supported most recently by the publication in late 2015 of our research involving responses from more than 8,000 secondary school students in England.We are the leading institution in teacher development in the United Kingdom and a world-class provider of Holocaust education.

UCL Beacon School Programme in Holocaust Education is made possible through generous funding by Pears Foundation, the

Department for Education, and the Claims Conference.

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