Talking to children about the events in Israel and Gaza
Thursday 29th February 2024
The events unfolding in Israel and Gaza will have created concern in us all. Responses to this conflict may display themselves in your school or education setting in a variety of ways.
Some in your community may have been affected personally, and you will be working to support adults, children, and young people to understand events and cope with the impact.
The links below signposts some resources that may be useful as you support your community to handle conversations appropriately and to prevent and address incidents of racism and bullying.
PSHE education can help pupils to make sense of the world around them. While PSHE may not often focus on actual news stories, it does aim to develop pupils’ analytical skills and their ability to empathise with others, while exploring how the news can affect their feelings and mental health.
There are some teaching resources below that can be used to help children make sense of what they hear about in the news, including the current conflict.
Resources for all schools
The Home Office have shared some links for schools from Solutions not Sides, an organisation for Israel-Palestine Education:
Israel-Palestine: Avoiding Antisemitic and Islamophobic Hate Speech
The Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, the Minister for Schools and the Minister for Skills have written to schools and colleges (17 October 2023) to provide advice on how to respond to the Israel-Hamas conflict in the classroom:
Israel-Hamas conflict: Advice for schools from Ministers
The NAHT, School Leaders Union, have gathered resources members might wish to consider and use in their schools at this difficult and sensitive time:
The Israel-Gaza conflict and the role of schools
Primary school resources
Resources from the Guardian Foundation to help children (9-11) make sense of what they see in the news
Information about Israel-Gaza from First News
Childline have some information for children worrying about Israel and Gaza
Secondary school resources
Teaching resources from the Red Cross to help teach about the current conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (ages 10-19)
Educate Against Hate provide Government advice and resources (including classroom resources) to help safeguard students from radicalisation, build resilience to all types of extremism and to promote our shared values.
