Pioneering pupils get Frank award (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford schoolchildren win national award

6:50pm Thursday 7th May 2009 in News By Emma Clayton

Bradford schoolchildren who created a human rights education pack, inspired by an exhibition about Anne Frank, have won a national award.

The youngsters, who trained as ‘ambassadors’ to guide visitors around the exhibition, are to be presented with the National Anne Frank Group Award at the House of Lords next month.

The award is from the Anne Frank Trust UK, the sister organisation of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

Working with Education Bradford, the Trust brought the Anne Frank and You exhibition to Cartwright Hall in March.

Featuring a full-scale replica of the bedroom where the Jewish teenager hid from the Nazis for two years, the exhibition was linked to an education pack, created by Bradford schools, which is being used by schools district-wide and has been taken up by education authorities across the UK.

Based on the theme Stand Up To Hatred, the pack links Anne’s diary to human rights issues.

The Anne Frank and You exhibition has toured the world and been translated into 40 languages but this was the first time schoolchildren had been involved in such a way.

Diane Hadwen, Education Bradford’s diversity and cohesion manager, said: “The Trust described their work as ‘groundbreaking’.

“The Anne Frank Trust is a highly regarded education and recognition programme that seeks to recognise young people and educators who have shown personal strength, moral courage and determination to stand up for what is right.”

A spokesman for the Trust said: “It celebrates people who not only believe in Anne Frank’s inspirational words ‘It only takes a moment to start to improve the world’, but also put them into action.

“With so much adverse publicity about gun and knife crime and teenage violence, we’re looking for the often unsung heroes working towards a better future, trying to change attitudes and challenge prejudice and racism.

“The Anne Frank Trust UK believes those who speak out, go out of their way for others, and stick out their necks for the common good should be held up as an example.

“Those who share the spirit that Anne demonstrated and the values she believed in. Those who, in a moment of inspiration, kindness and compassion literally acted ‘Frankly’.”