Success in the Making

Why tackling homphobia should be at the top of every school’s agenda

April 4th, 2011 with No Comments

LGBT History Month may be over but all schools should be looking at spreading its ethos – of acceptance and celebration – right through the year says Elly Barnes, Diversity Course Leader at Stoke Newington School

Teachers need to be at the forefront of tackling homophobia in schools and, indeed, with the equality laws and policies in place, they should be taking a lead on this work. But many feel unable to do so.

For those looking to increase their LGBT awareness programme in their school, I’d recommend you start off small. You can’t walk into a Year 10 or 11 lesson and start talking about transgender people. But it does grow. It feels slow and small at first but very quickly wonderful things will happen.

For instance, at my school I started by explaining what ‘LGBT’ means, then identifying famous LGBT people and particularly individuals that they wouldn’t know were LGBT. By showing LGBT people within your community and within your schools, you can create that environment where everyone can be who they need to be.

It’s about following a simple rule: just give students facts. Explain what words like Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual mean. The only reason they laugh is because they don’t know what they mean. After they know that, they use the words in the correct way.

I’ve found that some teachers feel that if they raise LGBT issues the pupils will automatically think they are gay. But actually the kids will not make a judgement about you, you are just giving them the facts.

There’s nothing in the curriculum that represents LGBT people so teachers have a duty to reflect it where we can. During History Month, all of our departments do a project related to LGBT. ICT covered Alan Turing, Humanities looked at the black activist James Baldwin and music played ‘The weakness in me’ by Joan Armatrading.

I’m proud that this school has tackled this absolutely head-on with absolutely no apologies for what we do, despite criticisms from people in the media. I want to see tackling homophobia at the top of every school’s agenda. It is a matter of child protection: are our young people – especially our LGBT young people – being protected in our schools? I don’t think they are.

*Stoke Newington School runs training for teachers ‘How to make your school LGBT friendly’. Please get in touch via ellybarnes@hotmail.com and 02072419653 for more details

To see a video about the school’s LGBT History month click here