Year 8 Class Reader

Year 8’s set text based on the Common Entrance theme: 'Relationships' 

John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
 
www.johnboyne.com/theboyinthestripedpyjamas.html
 

Berlin, 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no-one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But, Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than what meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

To enhance and support the reading of the book and the studying of the background to it, Year 8 are to visit the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Newark. The visit will tie in with four subject areas: History, Religious Studies, PSHE and English.  

Clearly the subject matter can be somewhat harrowing but the Holocaust Centre has planned the day specifically with Year 8 age children in mind. There will be a short video, a tour through the museum, a talk on the history of Judaism and the Jewish people, a walk through the memorial garden where they will be able to lay a stone on the memorial plaque, an explanation of the Third Reich, and, perhaps most poignantly, the children will meet with a Holocaust survivor. www.holocaustcentre.net