Supporting Holocaust Survivor Testimony in Teaching

The Department for Education (the department) is looking for a provider to help schools with fulfilling the ambition for young people to hear recorded survivor testimony by enabling access to support and guidance which they can continue to use in future years.

The programme will equip schools with tools, guidance and support, including signposting to high-quality sources for Holocaust survivor testimony. This will enable them to make the best use of this source material in teaching. It includes supporting schools to use new technological innovations around testimony and being mindful of the benefits and risks within such developments i.e. helping teacher/student digital literacy, and as with history sources, to critically engage with AI tools and recognise AI-generated misinformation.

The supplier will:

Develop and roll-out a resource pack supporting schools to use survivor testimony effectively in their teaching. This will provide assembly and lesson guidance (with a focus on history as a subject area), and use of survivor testimony from the wide array of existing resources available from expert organisations.

Provide Continuing Professional Development/in class-help to support schools to use testimony effectively.

Encourage further development of AI/VR resources relating to survivor testimony. By:

including in the resource pack guidance and help on how to best use this form of emerging technology within Holocaust education, and support schools to be sensitive to the use of such technology in the teaching of the Holocaust as per the IHRA conference recommendations on use of AI in Holocaust memory;

signposting to current high-quality provision; and

supporting schools with the hardware needed to access such software programmes by buying VR headsets and putting in place a mechanism for sharing these with schools in order to demonstrate the potential with this new technology.

The DfE is keen to maximise opportunities to participate in procurement for Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs). Consideration will also be given to consortia and collaborative bids from all forms of organisations.