Holocaust school lessons to be improved after 'shocking' antisemitism review
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Education Secretary Lucy Powell says the government will "update and strengthen" Holocaust education within schools after a major review highlighted the "shocking scale" of antisemitism in British society.
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Schools and colleges in England will be required to recognise antisemitism as a distinct category of harm and take explicit action against it.
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It means anti-Jewish hatred will be treated as a specific safeguarding risk rather than being dealt with through existing measures to stop racism and bullying.
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The government has accepted all of the 27 recommendations made in the government-commissioned review including dedicated training for teachers and more consistent recording of incidents.
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Schools should recognise antisemitism as distinct form of harm, review says The review into antisemitism in schools and colleges in England was led by former Ofsted chief inspector Sir David Bell and presented to Parliament on Wednesday.
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Powell told the BBC it marked a "generational moment" to re-educate young people, among whom she said the issue of antisemitism was "particularly prevalent".
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She said: "It's definitely a crisis and I think it's actually got worse since Sir David began this review.
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This has become a real challenge for Jewish people in our country, but also Jewish students and Jewish teachers working in our schools and colleges. "I do really feel it is a generational moment to educate this generation and the next – that is the job of education – to understand what antisemitism is in the modern world."
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Speaking on Holocaust education, the education secretary said new lessons will "challenge" some of the concepts that young people have.
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The review also calls for stronger guidance on political impartiality for teachers.
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Powell told the House of Commons "teachers should not bring their own political views into the classroom" but they should not avoid discussing important topics.
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The review was launched following a series of high-profile incidents including the attack at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester in October 2025, in which two men were killed.
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Separate reviews were also commissioned into antisemitism in healthcare and into public order and hate crime laws.
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The BBC revealed in August that the Bell review had found Jewish schoolchildren were experiencing regular harassment and abuse.
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It also found that headteachers of some Jewish schools were spending more of their time dealing with security arrangements than educational matters.
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The review also recommends that the government sets up a type of hotline where school leaders can access immediate advice on tackling antisemitism.
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Bell, who is now vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, heard evidence from pupils, teachers, governors and parents across state and independent schools, as well as from community organisations.
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He told the BBC: "This is not just a report for Jewish children in Jewish schools.
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This is for all children and young people in all schools and colleges. We know that antisemitism crosses all boundaries." Earlier this month, the BBC was given rare access inside a Jewish school in Hertfordshire, where pupils and staff operate under tight security, amid heightened concerns about antisemitism.
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Spencer Lewis, the executive headteacher of Yavneh College, said that security was an "innate part" of his role.
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"When you come in in the morning, there are high gates, high fences, lots of security cameras.
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We have four full-time security staff. And it sort of just becomes part of what you do," he said. In response to the recommendations, the government will also encourage schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)'s working definition of antisemitism, although it cannot make it compulsory.
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The definition is supported by mainstream Jewish organisations and has been adopted by 47 countries, including the UK, as well as most British universities.
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However, some of the IHRA definition's examples of antisemitic behaviour have proven controversial.
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The Board of Deputies of British Jews said that adopting the IHRA definition would provide schools with a tool "to deepen understanding of contemporary antisemitism".
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In a statement, a spokesperson told the BBC: "Treating antisemitism in schools as a safeguarding issue will have the benefit of creating an explicit duty on all schools to address this as they would any other threat to children's safety, and will strengthen accountability."
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Rabbi Charley Baginksy and Rabbi Josh Levy, co-leads of the Movement for Progressive Judaism, said that the report "exposes serious failures in how schools recognise and respond to antisemitism".
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They said: "Alongside that urgent question of how schools deal with hatred and educate about Jewish persecution, we also need to ensure they teach about Jewish creativity, music, literature, humour and the extraordinary pleasure of belonging to this diverse tradition."
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Dan Green, Chief Executive of the Anne Frank Trust UK, said the review "confirms what we see in classrooms every day".
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"Antisemitism in our schools is real, it is widespread, and too often it goes unrecognised and unchallenged."
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"One-off assemblies are not enough, and neither is sitting pupils in front of a video.
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Young people need the space to ask difficult questions, challenge their own assumptions and understand that antisemitism did not start or end with the Holocaust." The National Education Union raised concerns about creating a "hierarchy of racism" and adopting the IHRA definition.
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It said the latter risked "blurring the line between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and the genocide in Gaza".
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The union welcomed a "strengthened focus on antisemitism" while underlining that "no form of racism should be minimised".
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Recent figures from the Community Security Trust, an organisation which provides security advice and support to the Jewish community, showed a spike in antisemitic incidents at schools.
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It found in the first half of 2026 that antisemitism in schools had reached the highest level ever recorded for the first six months of any year.
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Schools should recognise antisemitism as distinct form of harm, review says
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