By Educate & Celebrate

Building a Future of Inclusion

Community is at the heart of everything we do at Educate & Celebrate as, very simply, we want young LGBT+ people, teachers, parents, leadership teams and governors to feel acknowledged, accepted and appreciated. We believe that together we can make society a more welcoming place by embedding gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into the fabric of our schools and organisations.

The video highlights the positive impact on those schools who have implemented an LGBT+ inclusive education. Not only will your interventions create a safe and secure environment for your LGBT+ young people, but they will inevitably lead to the development of an intersectional curriculum which will add value to the experiences of all pupils.

To experience this for yourself, please enjoy some taster lesson plans for all key stages and subject areas from our PRIDE in Education Collection and you'll find more on the iChild website.

If you’d like to access further resources including policy guidance, curriculum maps, lesson plans, assemblies, posters, songs, book collections and much more then you can join E&C as an exclusive member.

Why is it vital to get the language right?

For social cohesion we recommend all stakeholders attend initial training as it is vital to all start off from the same point, especially in terms of the use of new language going forwards in your school. Recently, we saw the devastating effects of getting the language wrong in an interview with the FA Chair Greg Clarke which was littered with discriminatory language. 

Language surrounding gender identity and sexual orientation is constantly changing as we learn more about identity. You may have seen the expanding initialisms over the years. For example:

Answers:

As we learn more about ourselves, the language in our schools will change over time to represent a more gender free environment especially with regards to pronouns, gender options on forms, how we greet each other, how we line up, how we monitor incidents and how we fill in application forms. To learn more about how to update your policies, language and systems you can sign up to our newsletter to make sure you hear about our Wednesday Webinars. You can also see some examples of our webinar titles on the staff training page:

"Thanks to you for the webinar yesterday. It was brilliant – the expertise and energy were both inspiring and the online format worked really well. It was also great to lift our heads above the day to day realities of lockdown and focus on taking our schools forward positively in the future. I certainly hope that there will be more virtual seminars in the future and would not hesitate to recommend them!" - Deputy Headteacher

"I just want to say a huge thank you for today’s session. I feel it was so informative and it has answered so many of the questions I was afraid to ask. Thank you for being so open and honest, I definitely feel I have some reflecting to do in terms of being inclusive and this session has provided me with the right leads to do this. Thank you again, it was amazing!" -
Teacher trainee.

Will an LGBT+ inclusive education work in my school?

Absolutely YES!

Not only is an LGBT+ education compulsory as part of Relationships & Sex Education, our research further demonstrates that it can have a positive impact on all aspects of the curriculum and in all types of schools too, including additional needs, single gender, faith schools, pupil referral units, boarding, independent and international schools.

It is worth bearing in mind that not one of us is born with prejudice; we can see this when we watch very young children play freely and openly regardless of their backgrounds. Unfortunately, in education, we often see learnt behaviours, including prejudice, which can become ingrained within an organisation over time. It is these learnt behaviours that we seek to unlearn by providing training, guidance and resources for pupils, staff, parents, leadership teams and governors to create an enlightened environment where all identities are embraced.

Interestingly, the only universal barrier we have encountered is that of fear. Often, the fear of upsetting parents, fear of talking about different faiths and cultures, fear of a member of staff or the wider community as a whole. However, the mission is to educate all stakeholders and bring everyone on side in a structured way, using a step-by-step programme which will guarantee success. To support you through the change process why not read more about the PRIDE in Inclusion Award.

If you’d like further support and guidance then you can read our reports and purchase our book How to Transform Your School into and LGBT+ friendly place: A practical guide for nursery, primary and secondary teachers.

We wish you all the best on your journey to LGBT+ inclusion!

For more lessons and resources, visit Educate & Celebrate's iChild section.