THIS week’s school reports look at the work of Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School.

A group of Rhyddings pupils have been carrying out work this year in helping to remember sufferers from the Holocaust and wars across the world.

Year 7 and 8 students have been delivering Holocaust awareness sessions to the rest of their schoolmates with help from the Anne Frank Trust.

Twenty lower school students were selected to receive peer guide training over a two-week period and worked on presentations of the Anne Frank story which were later given to other Rhyddings students and local primary schools.

RE teacher Karen Crawshaw said: “The students’ efforts were recognised last week when they were presented with certificates of appreciation, and a Terry’s chocolate orange, from headteacher Mr Trickett and chair of governors Bob Allonby.

“The school was approached by the Anne Frank Trust because of its strong commitment to Holocaust awareness and Remembrance, which this year has included a visit from Holocaust survivor Iby Knill and a trip to Auschwitz, while a group of 50 students recently visited the World War One battlefields and commemoration sites in Belgium and France.”

As part of the four-day visit, students visited the Sheffield Memorial Park and listened to accounts of what happened to the Accrington Pals, and laid a wreath in remembrance.

They also visited some of their graves at Queens Cemetery in Sheffield and spent time reflecting on what it must have been like for the men and their families.

Students this year also visited the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France, where its position helped them to understand how ground changed from one army’s hands to the enemy's, and back again.

As part of their stay in Ypres, students took part in The Last Post at the Menin Gate, while three were selected to lay a wreath on behalf of the school.

Students also took part in a living art installation. As part of this they created clay soldiers, part of a collection that is currently being displayed in Belgium, one soldier being made for each soldier that lost their life.

As part of the installation, students were given a dog-tag and told to research information on their soldier, including how old they were on enlisting and on their death.

At Passchendaele Memorial Museum in Belgium and trenches, students experienced first-hand what the sleeping conditions were like for the soldiers.

Tears were shed at the Tyne Cot Military Cemetery, the largest military cemetery.

Here, students were taken to the section that holds the names of the Accrington Pals who have no graves.