SIXTH form pupils from across the county gathered in Salisbury on Thursday (March 7) for a conference considering the moral dilemmas faced by individuals caught up in genocide.

The youngsters were at Salisbury Guildhall for the first Sarum Academy Regional Post 16 Conference.

The Genocide and Me conference drew schools from both the state and private sector from Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire and won funding to support the event from the Bishop Wordsworth’s Educational Trust.

Working with Facing History and Ourselves, an organisation that believes that education is the key to combating bigotry and nurturing democracy, pupils explored the events that led to the Holocaust, as well as the Rwandan genocide.

The aim was to help them learn to combat prejudice with compassion, indifference with participation, and myth and misinformation with knowledge.

Organiser Bob Wardzinski said: “This was a milestone event for the Academy and we are delighted that so many schools have chosen to support it with such enthusiasm.”