PUPILS at Queen Anne High School paid tribute to victims of the Holocaust by holding a special remembrance service last Tuesday.

After visiting Auschwitz in September as part of a national awareness project. head girl Laura Hood and senior prefect Siobhan O’Grady organised and led the service that relayed their own experiences of visiting the Nazi death camp that saw more than one million people – mainly Jews – killed from May 1940 until its liberation in January 1945.

In November the pupils planted a tree in the school grounds as a memorial to the Holocaust victims and depute rector Jackie Campbell said, “We hold a Holocaust memorial service once every few years, dependent on pupils taking part in the national programme. Two children from each school in Scotland have the chance to go to Auschwitz and, last year, Laura and Siobhan went. They felt inspired to relay the message and it was an opportunity for the school community to share their experiences, and with this year being the 70th anniversary of the liberation it was quite poignant.

“There were representatives from classes in each year group and parents who attended, and each year group also had the opportunity to hear the message in their own assemblies. The mood afterwards was very sombre and I think that it brought home the atrocities and horror, as well as the opportunity to reflect.” Meanwhile a group of S1 and S2 pupils took part in an exciting literacy project offered by Keele University and run by Dr Joe Reddington at the school last week.

The White Water Writers project allows groups of up to ten writers to write and publish their own novel within five days. They are given an idea for a story before developing it, drafting it, proofing it, refining it and polishing it, and the pupils worked collaboratively to write a book which will be published.