THURSDAY was a special day for one Royal Wootton Bassett Academy teacher as she was presented with an MBE by the Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace.

Dr Nicola Wetherall was awarded the prestigious honour for services to Holocaust education.

After receiving her MBE, she said: “It was a lovely day at the Palace. I am hugely honoured, proud and humbled. It was great to share this special day with my family.”

Since 2009, Nicola has pioneered an internationally recognised programme in Holocaust, genocide and human rights.

Students throughout the school are asked to look differently at some of the most challenging questions from history and how they impact the present day.

Survivors of the Holocaust and the genocides in Bosnia and Rwanda have visited the school to tell their own powerful stories.

The programme is seen as a model by teachers and educators around the country and Nicola's personal contribution to it is widely recognised.

Her students have spoken of the profound impact that the opportunities they have been given have had on not just their education, but also their ambitions for the future.

India Grant, 17, said: “I really can’t convey the impact that is has on you when you meet a survivor.

“Seeing the same footage in documentaries again and again is one thing, but when you sit with someone, hear those little details, notice their idiosyncrasies as they tell their stories, it makes it real.”

Fellow student Annie Sheldon, also 17, has been inspired to pursue a career in human rights law as a result of the insight she has been given at RWBA.

“I can say 100 percent that it has made a difference to who I am as a person,” she said.

"I don’t think I would have the aspirations I do now if it wasn’t for this programme. For you to be inspired to make a change you need to have a personal connection to it, my experiences here have given me that opportunity.”

Headteacher George Croxford described Nicola as “an exceptional teacher, educator and person”.

He added: “She does more for Holocaust and genocide education than anyone I have ever known.

"The whole of Royal Wootton Bassett Academy and the whole of the Holocaust education movement will be so proud of her achievement.”

Olivia Marks-Woldman and Karen Pollock, Chief Executives of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and Holocaust Educational Trust, both tweeted their congratulations on Thursday in recognition of the achievement.

When the New Year's Honour list was first revealed, she paid tribute to the contribution that her colleagues have made to the success of the programme she has led from its inception.

"When we started the programme in 2009, I could never have expected just how far it would go," she said.

"The range of staff that have got involved, that have gone out of their comfort zone across all departments and believed in this.

"Teachers do so much, often unsung, extraordinary and important work with young people everyday in classrooms and schools across the country and globally, so I am most proud to be a teacher recipient, especially as a serving teacher amongst so many talented, brilliant, committed and equally deserving teachers here at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy.

"I am especially mindful today of the words of one of the worlds most incredible teachers, Holocaust survivor, Nobel prize winner and my late friend, Elie Wiesel, who described teaching to me as 'a gift, a precious privilege, a duty'.

"I hope, like my Grandad and Dad, he would be proud today. I aspire everyday day in my classroom to live up to their and Elie's faith in me and I pledge to continue this important work."