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������̳ Teach > School Radio > Assemblies and Collective Worship
KS1 audio: Something to Think About / KS2 audio: Together

Gemma considers what it takes to be a hero: do you always have to be 'brave'? Included is the first part of the story of Sir Nicholas Winton, told for us by his daughter, Barbara.

Before the programme

• Can one person change the world? Discuss with a partner. How is your school community a diverse community? What benefits are there to being a group of many different individuals?
• How are people who are different from each other welcomed as part of your school community? How would your community change if one group were treated differently just because they were different?
• What risks might you be prepared to take to stand up for someone who is being treated unfairly?
• What do you know about World War II and the Holocaust in particular?
• Are there examples like this still happening in our own time? Where?

Story synopsis:

Our story is set in the months immediately before the outbreak of World War II and follows the actions of Sir Nicholas Winton. He rescued 669 children from Prague who were at immediate threat from the Nazis, arranging for them to come to homes in Britain. The events begin at Christmas 1938 when Nicholas Winton receives a phone call from his friend Martin Blake that will take him to Czechoslovakia and change his life… The script has been co-written by Nicholas Winton’s daughter, Barbara.

After the story:

• Sir Nicholas Winton was born Nicholas Wertheimer in 1909 to German Jewish parents who had moved to London. Why do you think the family changed the name to Winton?
• What do you think made him so determined to help the children he saw in Prague when others chose a different path?
• Put yourself in the place of one of the people in the story: whose place would be the most challenging and why? Is there anyone in the story that you identify with? Why?
• After the war, Winton told no-one about what he had done, not even his wife, Grete. Why do you think he made this decision?

Follow-up activities:

• Find out what happens in your area to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27th) Why do you think people choose to remember such a horrific event in our world history? There are plenty of resources on the .
• The children’s author Judith Kerr (the ‘Mog’ books / The Tiger Who Came to Tea etc) escaped from Nazi Germany to Britain during 1933 and wrote about her experiences in a book called When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. It’s a very good read for KS2 children and would be worth exploring during several storytime sessions as a child-friendly way in to this topic.
• Map the route taken by the kindertransport to Britain, showing the countries it passed through.
• There’s a statue at Liverpool Street Station in London of children arriving on the ‘kindertransport’. Recreate it as a tableau, trying to match gesture and expression as closely as possible.