Anne Frank Youth Empowerment Conference

On Monday 20^th March, Miss Shah, Ms Moore and four of our Anne Frank Youth Ambassadors attended the Anne Frank Youth Empowerment Conference in London. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Courage,’ a theme Anne regularly writes about in her diary.

Miss Shah writes,

We had such a wonderful day, which included listening to an inspirational talk from Holocaust Survivor Michael Stern. Students also took part in three skills workshops based around the theme of courage. They used the knowledge learnt from the workshops to create a presentation, shown at the end of the day to everyone including a panel made up of funders, trustees and staff from the Anne Frank House and Michael Stern. All gave positive feedback on what the students produced.

Safiyah, Emma, Isabelle and Sara kindly gave the following feedback;

“It was a very interesting day and it was nice to get a chance to talk to other members of the Anne Frank trust from other schools, and the workshops were interesting!! I really liked the tote bag one and the Anne Frank House workshop really made you imagine what life would have been like for Jews at the time. The interview with Holocaust Survivor Martin Stern was so interesting and I think it was also quite sad, as he had to endure such horrible things at such a young age. It also made you see how people who helped Jewish families to hide were affected.” Safiyah K

“The day was great! We met a lot of nice passionate people who had the same views as us in terms of speaking out against prejudice and discrimination. It was moving to hear Martin Stern’s story as a Holocaust survivor. The workshops were entertaining and knowledgeable and I loved the theme of courage. We learnt how different life would be if we lived in the circumstances of Jewish people during that time. Then we decorated tote bags using the theme of courage. The final workshop was on writing poetry and how it can be used to show feelings and emotions related to all aspects of life. Finally, we did a presentation in front of all the teachers, students, ambassadors and Anne Frank workers on what we learned all day. It felt really good to stand in front of everyone and share our opinions about not only Anne Frank but her courage and life. I really enjoyed the experience. Thanks Miss Shah for taking us on such a great trip yet again.” Emma W

“The day was very eventful. We learnt about Anne Frank’s life. We learnt how she was courageous in all aspects of her life and what we can learn from her legacy. Everything we do has an impact and we should have the courage to seize every opportunity to make a positive change in the world. During the day, we decorated tote bags and learnt about how Anne showed courage. We wrote poems about how we can show courage. We also met a Holocaust survivor Martin Stern, who talked about his experience during the Holocaust. At the end of the day, we presented about what we learnt in the day. It was a very educational day and we all really enjoyed it.” Isabelle O

“Today was a very enjoyable day. Waking up early was not really fun but getting the train there was very fun and got me energetic for the day. I really enjoyed the workshops, especially the tote bags and the poem workshop. I really loved meeting Martin and hearing his story. It was very interesting and sad at the same time and I loved presenting and working together with my team. I would definitely like to do this again.” Sara S

It was a privilege to see so many students using their courage and voice to stand up and speak out against prejudice and discrimination. Huge thanks to the Anne Frank Trust team who made us feel so welcome. Well done Safiyah, Emma, Sara and Isabelle who made excellent contributions at the event. You are a credit to Bingley Grammar School!