Latest News

Holocaust Memorial Day in KS3

Thu 27 Jan 2022

KS3 learners enjoyed an uplifting assembly with Mr Silezin our Chair of the Management Committee. He has personal experience of the Holocaust as his father fled Nazi persecution in World War ll.

He was pleased with the interest and respectful behaviour of the learners and really appreciated their writing, story telling and imaginative work on this important issue.

#bethelight 🕯

article #30 the right to your culture, beliefs and identity

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) encourages remembrance in a world scarred by genocide. We promote and support Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) – the international day on 27 January to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution of other groups and in genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

#OneDay #Bethelight #HMD2022

We shared the story of Dr Martin Stern and held a minute's reflective silence in our assembly.

This is Martin's story...

Martin Stern was born in 1938 in the Netherlands. His parents were German, but fled to the Netherlands in part because Nazi laws in Germany forbade his non-Jewish mother from marrying his Jewish father.

When Martin was two years old, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. His father could not continue his work as an architect and had to go into hiding. Martin’s mother died after giving birth to his sister and the non-Jewish couple who looked after him whilst his sister was born continued to do so for two years, pretending he was their son. One day, two men came into his school and asked if Martin Stern was there. His teacher understood that he was in danger and lied, saying that he was not in school that day. Unfortunately, Martin was too young to understand, so he identified himself and went with them. Martin later discovered that the man who had been looking after him for two years was sent to a concentration camp as punishment, where he was murdered.

Two young men in civilian clothes unexpectedly walked in and one of them asked ‘Is Martin Stern here?’ And the teacher immediately shot back ‘No, he hasn’t come in today.’ And there I was. I didn’t understand what was going on. I put my hand up, and I said, ‘But I am here.’ And as these two young men were leading me out of the room, I looked back, and I’ll never forget the ashen face of the young teacher.

Martin and his sister Erica were both sent to Westerbork transit camp. Martin was five and Erica was one. There, Martin watched people being forced into cattle trucks and sent away, until it was his turn. He remembers a train so crowded they had to stand for their journey, which lasted about two days and nights. They arrived in Theresienstadt, a concentration camp north of Prague. The conditions were appalling, with very little food and terrible hygiene; there was an outbreak of typhus spread by the lice. A Dutch woman, Mrs Cathariena De Jong, looked after Martin and his sister, even stealing food for them. She stood ready to board the train which would have taken them with the other children to their deaths, but their names were not called. On 8 May 1945, the Soviet army entered and liberated the camp, although it was some time before the prisoners could leave.

After returning home to the Netherlands, Martin was sent from family to family, before moving to stay with relatives in the UK. He learnt English and did well at school, going on to become a British citizen aged 16 before studying Medicine at Oxford University. Martin worked as a hospital doctor living with his family in Leicester for many years. Today, he dedicates his time to sharing his story with groups across the UK, also teaching about other genocides and what it is about the human mind which makes such horrors possible. He often thinks about the other young children who were his friends in the camps, who did not survive.

From hmd.org.uk please follow the link to find out more.

Clark's ShoeShare

Wed 26 Jan 2022

Rights Respecting Schools ShoeShare

From 31st January we are asking for donations to the ShoeShare collection in school. We are asking everyone to donate one pair of clean and useable shoes or boots or trainers and we will then take them to Clark's who ensure the shoes go to places in and outside of the UK to help children who are not able to access their right to a good education, health care and development opportunities.

A letter with more details will be sent home shortly and we look forward to your support!

Please check this link for more information:

https://www.clarks.co.uk/sustainability/unicef

💯 attendance week update

Fri 14 Jan 2022

This was a great success and we held a whole school (socially distant and well ventilated) assembly to celebrate everyone who had achieved 100% attendance this week.

Everyone had a raffle ticket and the lucky winners of the prizes were:

1st prize Tylor-Li

2nd prize Mason

3rd prize Lewis

Goody bags for everyone else and all tickets go into the half term draw 🎟

Lets keep up this great effort and make every week a full week ✅

100% attendance week 10th January 2022!

Fri 07 Jan 2022

10th January 2022

100% attendance week

Switch of the tv, shut down the the x-box and get off the social media! Early nights and alarms set!

Its 💯 attendance week and everyone has a new year’s resolution to attend school every day!
Everyone is in and all 💯 attenders get a ticket for the 💯 Club and are in the half term draw to win the £10 gift voucher. There are also prizes for this special week!

The winners of the autumn term prize draw are:

KS3 Alfie S

KS4 Michael H

Well done both, keep it up 👍🏼

See you EVERY DAY!

Return to school Thursday 6th January 2022

Tue 04 Jan 2022

Hoping everyone has had a good break and Happy New Year to all!

Ty Gwyn is open Wednesday 5th January 2022 to some categories of learner only, we will contact you if this is the case.

All learners should return Thursday 6th January 2022.

Thankyou for your understanding.

Learners should also ensure:

masks are worn on transport
they wash hands regularly
they follow staff instructions re social distancing
they test themselves at home using Lateral Flow Tests prior to coming to school, twice a week

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