Mrs Ackroyd (Religious Studies Teacher)

On Tuesday morning, BGS was delighted to welcome the Hon Alistair Burt to speak to Year 10 about the conflict in Palestine with some of Lower Sixth and Year 9 having the opportunity to access this via live link.

As Minister for the Middle East under David Cameron, and subsequent governments until 2019, Mr Burt has an extraordinary insight into the complexity of the region. Since leaving government, much of his time has been spent working with a global think tank, the Middle Eastern conflict resolution group Forward Thinking, which is focused on working towards peace. It was a privilege to hear from someone who has met with such a spectrum of key stakeholders in this painful historic conflict and who has also has got to know many families who have suffered as a consequence.

Many of the students were deeply moved by his wisdom and humility when discussing the history which lay behind the current situation. His brief was to give a big picture insight and hopefully there will be future opportunities to delve further.

Haniah, Aliza and Shayna (Year 10) reflected on the talk

It was a pleasure to be able to have the opportunity to listen to Alistair Burt, a British politician who served as Member of Parliament for North East Bedfordshire. His role as Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa and Secretary of State Foreign & Commonwealth Office allowed him to speak to us, Year 10 BGS students, about what he said was one of the “most complex global issues” currently: the Israel and Palestine Conflict. Mr Burt, having visited the area many times and even communicated with the residents of both sides there, shared stories of his experiences meeting families who had lost their children in violent attacks and many others who had suffered as a result of the conflict and how they expressed their hopes to one day end the suffering.

Haniah added: “I really liked how he remained unbiased throughout his speech, while giving accurate facts which both attached and supported both sides.” As we haven’t really learned much about the issue, apart from the information we’ve learnt from social media, having that opportunity to find out more about the issue from someone who has witnessed and seen this first hand and has dealt with this issue was really helpful to us. It gave us an insight into what is happening in the Middle East and in Palestine and Israel, he even provided us with personal anecdotes from when he visited both countries which are things the media couldn’t have provided us with.

It was also useful that it was personal and we could ask questions, because that provided us with further information and further understanding. Overall everyone felt thoroughly educated after the talk, and really enjoyed learning about global issues.