From Jemma Tappenden

As part of our continued work as a Quality Mark School, students involved in the Highfields ‘DiverseCity’ student action group – a legacy project developed from engagement with Nic Wetherall’s ‘The Holocaust, Their Family, Me and Us’ enrichment project, worked alongside lead teacher, Jemma Tappenden to enable 150 Year 9 students to hear from Solutions Not Sides.

On Monday 7th July, Year 9 students took part in a powerful and thought-provoking workshop led by the educational organisation Solutions Not Sides. The session was designed to deepen students’ understanding of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict and encourage respectful, balanced dialogue on this complex issue.

As part of the session, students heard directly from two guest speakers, one from Palestine and the other from Israel, who shared their personal perspectives and experiences of the conflict. Their stories offered unique, human insights that moved beyond headlines and newsfeeds, helping students to better understand the real-life impact on individuals and communities.

The Solutions Not Sides programme focuses on promoting critical thinking, empathy, and conflict resolution. It aims to empower young people to explore nuanced viewpoints and move away from division or polarisation.

We’re incredibly proud of how maturely and thoughtfully our students engaged with the session, demonstrating deep understanding of their Holocaust Education to ask insightful questions and showing a genuine interest in understanding the conflict from multiple angles.

We are extremely grateful to Solutions Not Sides and our guest speakers for providing such an important learning opportunity and look forward to developing further opportunities alongside them for young people in our school and across the wider community to gain an important understanding of the historic and present nature of the conflict.