Education Secretary Lucy Powell said the government will "update and strengthen" Holocaust education in English schools after a major review highlighted the "shocking scale" of antisemitism in British society, the BBC reported. Schools and colleges in England will be required to recognise antisemitism as a distinct category of harm and take explicit action against it, treating anti-Jewish hatred as a specific safeguarding risk rather than only through existing anti-racism and bullying policies. The government has accepted all 27 recommendations in the review, led by former Ofsted chief inspector Sir David Bell and presented to Parliament on Wednesday, including dedicated teacher training and more consistent recording of incidents.
Powell told the BBC it marked a "generational moment" to re-educate young people, among whom she said antisemitism was "particularly prevalent." "It's definitely a crisis and I think it's actually got worse since Sir David began this review," she said. "This has become a real challenge for Jewish people in our country, but also Jewish students and Jewish teachers working in our schools and colleges." New Holocaust lessons, she said, will "challenge" some of the concepts young people have. The review also calls for stronger guidance on political impartiality. Powell told the House of Commons that "teachers should not bring their own political views into the classroom" but should not avoid important topics. The review was launched after a series of high-profile incidents, including the attack at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester in October 2025, in which two men were killed.
The BBC reported in August that the Bell review had found Jewish schoolchildren were experiencing regular harassment and abuse, and that heads of some Jewish schools were spending more time on security than on education. Bell, now vice-chancellor of the University of Sunderland, recommended a hotline for school leaders seeking immediate advice. "This is not just a report for Jewish children in Jewish schools. This is for all children and young people in all schools and colleges," he told the BBC. Spencer Lewis, executive head of Yavneh College in Hertfordshire, said security was an "innate part" of his role, with high gates, cameras, and four full-time security staff.
The government will also encourage schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's working definition of antisemitism, though it cannot make that compulsory. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said treating antisemitism as a safeguarding issue would create "an explicit duty on all schools to address this as they would any other threat to children's safety." Dan Green of the Anne Frank Trust UK said antisemitism in schools is "real, it is widespread, and too often it goes unrecognised." The National Education Union welcomed a stronger focus on antisemitism but raised concerns about creating a "hierarchy of racism" and about the IHRA definition, which it said risked "blurring the line between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of the Israeli government." The verified news is a government decision to accept the review's recommendations, and a live argument about how those recommendations should be applied.