MP secures Education Minister’s support for Lakes School rebuild and Windermere Children exhibition

In Parliament this week, local MP Tim Farron encouraged ministers in the Department for Education to back a bid to rebuild the Lakes School at Troutbeck Bridge

The bid also contains plans to create an exhibition about the Windermere Children – the 300 Jewish children who rebuilt their lives in Troutbeck Bridge after being rescued from concentration camps in 1945.

The cultural centre, proposed by the charity The Lake District Holocaust Project, would mark the special role Cumbria played in helping some of those who survived the holocaust to rebuild their lives, and would help combat rising antisemitism.

Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate on Tuesday, Tim said: “As the Minister knows, we have put a bid in to honour the lasting legacy of the Windermere Children by rebuilding the Lakes School on the site where they lived.

“It will be a place for Holocaust education and remembrance, where hope can be built for a country that does not tolerate antisemitism and where we teach a hatred of hatred to the youngest in our society.

“That is a real opportunity, and I ask the Minister to look favourably on the bid to rebuild the school and create a lasting memorial to the Windermere Children.”

In response, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education, Josh MacAlister said: “The honourable member for Westmorland and Lonsdale is right to highlight the important history of the Windermere Children.

“I am keen to do what I can to support the case he is making to find ways to both rebuild the school and bring greater Holocaust education to the north of England, and I share many of his aspirations in that respect.”