Bullying
Tackling
homophobic bullying
In 2009, 75 per cent of pupils at Alfred Salter Primary School were hearing homophobic language on a daily basis. Now, the school is to become the only primary in the country offering training days to support school staff in tackling homophobic bullying. Deputy head Shaun Dellenty explains their journey
the school’s actions to prevent homophobic bullying are examined as part of the behaviour and safety judgement. Inspectors are increasingly asking children questions pertaining to prejudice-based bullying and the use of homophobic language. In 2007, Stonewall published The Teachers Report which found that
T
75 per cent of primary school teachers were regularly hearing homophobic language used in a pejorative way. Evidence shows that homophobic bullying impacts upon attainment, attendance, physical and mental wellbeing and may result in self-harm and sometimes suicide. It is important to note that anyone can be targeted – pupils, staff and parents alike. I have been deputy headteacher of Alfred Salter for six years, during this
time I never kept my identity as a gay man secret, however at no point did I feel the need to place my identity as a gay man before my role as a teacher. In 2009, a number of factors came into play which not only shifted my
perception of what being openly gay at work could mean, but ultimately led to the school establishing itself as a training centre. The first of these was our ongoing programme of “Inspirational
Speakers” – people stemming from diverse backgrounds who come and talk to our pupils to raise aspirations. We aim to provide a diverse range of role models, could a gay role model therefore not provide a positive image for pupils? Suddenly my lack of open disclosure around being gay seemed to me to be letting pupils down. Second, the number of pupils expressing doubts over their gender identity
is increasing as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) characters become more widely seen in the media. None of the professionals in school felt equipped to support these children and as a gay man I feared that by getting involved myself I may be perceived to be “leading the pupils”.
16
he Equality Act now lists sexual orientation and gender/ transgender as protected characteristics and anti-bullying work has particular relevance under the new Ofsted framework, as
Third, was a huge increase in the use of homophobic language and
the pejorative use of the word “gay” – for example “those trainers are so gay”. Of particular interest was that when these incidents occurred, pupils where often told not to say the word gay as it was “not a nice thing to say”, therefore compounding the negative. For a child with gay family or friends this has the potential to be particularly upsetting. The fourth factor was the noticeable way that every incident of
homophobic bullying was being referred to me. Would every racism incident in a school be referred to a Black staff member? Suddenly as a leadership team we had lots of questions. The Stonewall research presented hard evidence that standards in schools are being affected by an epidemic of homophobic bullying.
Continued on page 18
“Once staff were familiar with the level of the problem and the potential effects upon standards and pupil welfare, any
barriers to talking about homophobia and LGBT people fell away. As one member of staff said, if these statistics were around racist bullying we would not hesitate to address the problem”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40