On 21 October 2026, Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT) wrote to the the Secretary of State for Education, The Rt Hon Lucy Powell MP, alongside Roma Support Group, to emphasise the importance of ensuring the persecution and genocide of Roma and Sinti is appropriately reflected in Holocaust education within the national curriculum, particularly as the Government now moves to implement the recommendations of the Curriculum and Assessment Review.
The letter can be seen here in full, and is copied below:
Dear Secretary of State,
Re: Inclusion of Roma and Sinti in Holocaust education and the national curriculum
We are writing to renew our request for the persecution and genocide of Roma and Sinti to be appropriately reflected in Holocaust education within the national curriculum, particularly as the Government now moves to implement the recommendations of the Curriculum and Assessment Review.
The conclusion of the Review and the Government’s commitment to refresh the national curriculum provide an important opportunity to strengthen Holocaust education, while ensuring that pupils develop a fuller understanding of the people and communities who were persecuted and murdered during the Holocaust.
The Government’s stated aims for the Review included a curriculum that reflects the issues and diversities of our society and ensures that all children and young people are represented.
We fully recognise the central importance of teaching the Holocaust, including the history and experiences of Jewish communities and the murder of six million Jewish people. Our request is not to diminish or displace this essential focus. Rather, we are asking that teaching about the Holocaust also accurately reflects the experiences of other groups targeted for persecution and genocide, including Roma and Sinti.
The Curriculum and Assessment Review provides a particularly relevant opportunity in this regard. In its recommendations on History, the Review makes clear that significant topics such as the Holocaust and the Second World War should continue to be taught. It states that curriculum exemplification should “enrich the curriculum by introducing a broader mix of perspectives and connections across different times and places”, rather than replacing existing content, and that this should include analysis of “a wide and diverse range of sources”. The Review also recommends that the Government “support the wider teaching of History’s inherent diversity”, including through the analysis of a wide range of sources and, where appropriate, local history.
With the revised national curriculum now in development, there is a clear opportunity to ensure that Holocaust education within the refreshed curriculum appropriatelyreflects the experiences of Roma and Sinti, while retaining the essential focus on the history and experiences of Jewish communities and the centrality of the genocide of Jewish people.
Including appropriately contextualised teaching about the persecution and genocideof Roma and Sinti would also have an important impact on Roma pupils, helping to strengthen their sense of representation, belonging and recognition within the curriculum. It would enable Roma pupils to see their history and experiences reflected in their education, while enriching all pupils’ understanding of Nazi persecution and the Holocaust. There is already a strong foundation of expertise on which this work could build.
Following our earlier correspondence, then Minister for School Standards Catherine McKinnell MP confirmed in January 2025 that the Department for Education was providing £500,000 to the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education and £2 million to the Holocaust Educational Trust and recommended that we engage with both organisations and relevant DfE officials to explore this issue. We subsequently had positive engagement with the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education and were encouraged by its expertise and commitment to Holocaust education, including its work to improve understanding of the persecution and genocide of Roma and Sinti.
However, the Centre has advised us that its existing funding limits its capacity to develop more specialised programmes and resources on the genocide of Roma. UCL has the expertise and commitment to undertake this work with relevant Roma people and organisations, but additional funding would be required to expand beyond what the Centre is currently able to offer.
Sally Sealey, Chief of Staff to the UK’s Post Holocaust Issues Envoy, also discussed this matter with the Holocaust Educational Trust on our behalf. We understand from this engagement that its current funding is principally focused on the experiences of Jewish people, with limited provision for the experiences of other groups persecuted by the Nazis.
We also discussed with the DfE whether the existing funding could be used to include Roma experiences within the work delivered by the Centre for Holocaust Education and the Holocaust Educational Trust. We were advised that the grant arrangements were focused on Holocaust education and not on the Nazis’ wider persecution and genocides.
We acknowledge and recognise the important need for a clear and substantial focus on the experiences of Jewish communities within Holocaust education. We also recognise that both organisations seek, where possible, to include teaching about the genocide of Roma and Sinti in their work. However, the current funding arrangements limit the ability to develop this work systematically and at the scale required to ensure that Roma experiences are appropriately represented within Holocaust education and the national curriculum.The history of the Roma and Sinti genocide and persecution is relevant to communities living in Britain today, including Roma and Romany Gypsy communities.
Ensuring that this history is taught accurately and sensitively can help pupils from the communities to see their history and experiences recognised within the wider narrative of British education, strengthening their sense of representation and belonging. This is particularly important in the context of the widespread anti-Gypsyism and anti-Roma discrimination faced by the communities today.
We therefore ask the Government to:
a) ensure that the persecution and genocide of Roma and Sinti are appropriately and accurately reflected in the development of the refreshed national curriculum and accompanying Holocaust education guidance and resources;
b) ensure that existing and future DfE funding for Holocaust education supports the development of high-quality resources on the persecution and genocide of Roma and Sinti, developed with relevant Roma people and organisations; and
c) convene a discussion between the Department for Education, relevant Holocaust education organisations and Roma organisations to agree how this work can be taken forward effectively, with appropriate expertise and community involvement.
We want to work with you, your officials and relevant organisations to ensure that the genocide of Roma and Sinti is taught accurately, sensitively and authentically as an integral part of high-quality Holocaust education, alongside the essential focus on the history and experiences of Jewish communities.
The letter was signed by FFT’s CEO, Sarah Mann, and Sylvia Ingmire, the CEO of Roma Support Group.
[END]
About Friends, Families and Travellers (FFT)
Friends, Families and Travellers is a leading national charity that works to end racism and discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people and to protect the right to pursue a nomadic way of life.
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