CONFERENCE

Delegates celebrated the myriad achievements the NASUWT has made in raising awareness of homophobia in education at its annual conference for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) teachers.

Chris Keates, NASUWT General Secretary, detailed the work the Union has undertaken over the last year to continue what she described as “the enduring battle against homophobia”. This included the Union’s sponsorship of FIT, a new educational DVD for schools by Stonewall, a copy of which has been sent to all secondary schools in England and Wales, and work being progressed with the TUC and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) to address heterosexism in the curriculum.

Ms Keates told delegates that the Union has also been promoting the use of the Safe to Learn guidance, which was developed by the NASUWT and the DCSF to help schools tackle all forms of prejudice-related bullying. However, she said that much more needed to be done to ensure that all schools and teachers are aware of, and are using, the resource. “We know how slow schools are to take up these issues,” she said, “and that the hierarchy of discrimination that prevails in schools means that homophobia is still being given a low priority.”

Bullying needs to be made a higher priority in schools, she added, calling for a mandatory duty on schools to monitor and record all homophobic incidents. Chris Gibbons from Stonewall gave delegates more details of the work being done by the charity and the NASUWT to tackle homophobia in schools, including the School Report and Teachers’ Report

surveys, which found that 90% of secondary and 44% of primary teachers said children experience homophobic abuse in their schools. Despite this, Mr Gibbons pointed out, nine in ten school members of staff say they have never received any specific training on homophobic bullying. Mr Gibbons urged delegates to make use of the materials produced by Stonewall and the NASUWT to raise the issue of homophobia in their school. He said: “We have to remind ourselves how much work we still have to do. People still think we shouldn’t be talking about these issues in schools, but for the wellbeing of both pupils and staff who may be being victimised it is essential that we do.”

During the later workshop sessions, Mr Gibbons led a seminar on tackling homophobia in faith schools. He was joined by Paddie Storrie, deputy headteacher at St George’s, a non-denominational Christian school in Harpenden, who emphasised that, while there are often greater barriers to tackling homophobia in faith schools, there is no reason it can’t be done. Mr Storrie told delegates: “I took the line that this was not about homosexuality or about faith, it was simply about bullying and the unacceptability of all forms of it,” he said. “Our key message throughout has been ‘we don’t treat people like that here’.”

Pav Akhtar, Head of Diversity at the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), set out the steps being taken to ensure that the teaching profession improves the recruitment and retention of LGBT teachers. “There is an enormous amount of work to be done in improving the training and awareness of schools, training institutions and trainees themselves on LGBT issues,” he said, “and improving the recruitment and retention of LGBT people within teaching will go a long way to supporting this work.” Delegates also had the chance to discuss their experiences of homophobia in the classroom. There was general agreement that apathy and fear are at the root of the common failure of schools to tackle homophobia and members were urged to use the Stonewall materials and harness the support of the Union to start addressing the issue.

The Safe to Learn guidance can be found at www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/ behaviour/tacklingbullying/safetolearn. For further information and resources on tackling homophobia in schools, visit www.stonewall.org.uk/at_school.

For further guidance from the NASUWT, visit www.nasuwt.org.uk/PrejudiceRelatedBullying.