Recorded guidance on Holocaust curriculum in schools: FOI release

Information requested

• Any guidance documents, policy frameworks, internal correspondence, or training materials relating to the framing, delivery, or symbolic structuring of Holocaust education in Scottish schools.
• Any recorded rationale for the inclusion of Holocaust education across multiple subjects (e.g. History, English, Drama, Art, PSHE), including any cross-curricular programming intentions or psychological framing strategies.
• Any documentation outlining the mandatory or recommended status of Holocaust education within the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence, including any recorded justification for its prioritisation or symbolic placement.
• Any correspondence or agreements with external organisations (e.g. Holocaust Educational Trust) regarding the design, funding, or ideological framing of Holocaust-related educational programmes, including the “Lessons from Auschwitz” initiative.
• Any recorded reviews, audits, or evaluations of the historical neutrality, ideological framing, or psychological impact of Holocaust education materials used in Scottish schools.

Clarification: This request is not a challenge to the inclusion of Holocaust education, but a forensic inquiry into the symbolic, psychological, and ideological framing of its delivery within Scottish educational settings.

Response

Please note below Education Scotland’s response to your Freedom of Information request.

• Any guidance documents, policy frameworks, internal correspondence, or training materials relating to the framing, delivery, or symbolic structuring of Holocaust education in Scottish schools.

Education Scotland has a resource on the following website Kindertransport | Resources | National Improvement Hub that may hold the information you have requested.

• Any recorded rationale for the inclusion of Holocaust education across multiple subjects (e.g. History, English, Drama, Art, PSHE), including any cross-curricular programming intentions or psychological framing strategies.

Education Scotland is not aware of any rationale for the inclusion of Holocaust education across multiple subjects.

• Any documentation outlining the mandatory or recommended status of Holocaust education within the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence, including any recorded justification for its prioritisation or symbolic placement.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance Education Scotland does not hold documentation outlining the mandatory or recommended status of Holocaust education within the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence.

The Curriculum for Excellence is a flexible curriculum which does not prescribe content, instead it allows teacher, schools and local authorities to decide what is most appropriate to teach in their contexts with their learners.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA, that Education Scotland does not hold the information you have requested.

• Any correspondence or agreements with external organisations (e.g. Holocaust Educational Trust) regarding the design, funding, or ideological framing of Holocaust-related educational programmes, including the “Lessons from Auschwitz” initiative.

Education Scotland had been asked to review online material during covid but documentation is no longer held for that request.

• Any recorded reviews, audits, or evaluations of the historical neutrality, ideological framing, or psychological impact of Holocaust education materials used in Scottish schools.

While our aim is to provide information wherever possible, in this instance Education Scotland does not hold any recorded reviews, audits or evaluations as detailed.

Teachers and schools can choose which resources to use or not in their own classrooms. Education Scotland does not record which resources are used or where they are used.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA, that Education Scotland does not hold the information you have requested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.