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How we did it
Without prejudice
Neil Hancox and Sarah Troughton’s efforts to combat discrimination won them the NUT’s 2012 Blair Peach Award. Sarah describes their work in this area.
As a disabled teacher, I wanted to tackle prejudice and inequality, so I agreed to take on the equalities offi cer role for Preston, then for Lancashire NUT association too. I still work full time as a junior school teacher, and get half a day a week facilities time for my union work.
The first event I worked on was an anti- racist day with around 120 year 9/10 pupils from seven Burnley schools. We had workshops from Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) exploring racism and homophobia, a music workshop run by Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR), and a Q&A with Clarke Carlisle and Graham Alexander from Burnley FC. Rapper KOF performed an amazing song he’d written about the racist murder of Liverpool teenager Anthony Walker, and the crowd went wild!
Lancashire NUT had conducted a survey on homophobia in schools in 2009. Lots of lesbian, gay, sexual and transgender (LGBT) teachers were reporting poor treatment. We wanted to see if the 2010 Equality Act was having any impact, so we organised another survey.
Encouragingly, we found schools more aware of the issue of homophobia and of their responsibilities. On the downside, we found LGBT teachers being targeted slightly more. We also found teachers wanting more training.
For Disability History Month last year we invited campaigner Richard Rieser to visit two schools in Preston. He delivered assemblies to the junior and year 9/10 pupils, who were captivated as he spoke about what it’s like to be disabled and the prejudice you face.
Richard worked with two classes in each school on disability discrimination. In the evening he addressed Lancashire NUT on dealing with disability in the classroom, disabled people’s struggles through history, and language.
There are resources to help you run similar events (visit our website
www.lancashirenut.org.uk to find links). There are also plenty of people willing to help.
Since April, schools have to comply with a new Equality Duty and publish a single equality policy covering all forms of discrimination. Ofsted will check what schools are doing, so schools need to prioritise these and think about children’s welfare, not just exam results.
Unfortunately, schools only have to formally report incidents of racist bullying, not disability discrimination or homophobia. And it’s shameful that, while racist language has become unacceptable, terms offensive to LGBT and disabled people are still common.
Working together is the way forward – schools, unions, charities, local authorities. Together we can start making a difference and begin to change society.
• Neil Hancox is NUT assistant division secretary in West Lancashire and Sarah Troughton is equalities offi cer for NUT Preston association.
• For updates on equalities issues, visit
www.teachers.org.uk/equalitiesbulletin
Who was Blair Peach?
The NUT’s Blair Peach Award honours members’ outstanding work against prejudice and discrimination. It was set up in memory of Blair Peach, the east London teacher killed by police during an anti-racist demonstration in 1979.
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