From the pen of... CATHERINE LEE VIEWS


This month, in our regular look at authors working in the field of UK education, we hear from Dr CATHERINE LEE, Deputy Dean for Education at Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, who discusses her book “Courage in the Classroom”.


I began my teaching career in the late 1980s in inner-city Liverpool and vividly remember the introduction of the Conservative Government’s Section 28 which prohibited local authorities, and therefore schools, from ‘promoting homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. Section 28 remained with us until 2003 creating for LGBT teachers a climate of fear in the school workplace. Like the majority of my LGBT teacher colleagues, during this era I was cautious and vigilant and did everything possible to ensure that my professional and personal identities never collided. To that end, like the majority of LGBT teachers I tried to remain as invisible as possible in school, avoiding all opportunities for promotion to school leadership roles fearing that with the status came greater personal scrutiny by the school community.


In 2010, after ten years at the same rural school, I did step into


leadership as Assistant Headteacher. And it was then that the personal and professional did collide and my worst fears came to pass. A homophobic neighbour and parent of five children at the school began a campaign of aggression against my partner and me which included urinating in the garden of our home and intolerable name-calling and intimidation every time we stepped outside. The neighbour also outed me to my Headteacher and alleged I had been staring ‘lustfully’ at his daughters, using that laziest of tropes that links same-sex relationships with hints of paedophilia.


Although the allegations were dismissed at school, I was overtly


supported by my Headteacher who put parent power before the Equality Act. So, after twenty years as a teacher, I left the career I loved and entered Higher Education as both a PhD student and a university Education course leader. I promised myself that in my new role working with student teachers and conducting research, I would do everything possible to ensure schools became workplaces in which LGBT teachers could thrive as their authentic selves.


In 2016, I met Jane Robinson, an Essex Headteacher. She had gained


DfE funding to set up the UK’s first LGBT leadership programme for teachers and asked me to get involved as a mentor. We formed a Strategic Leadership team and Courageous Leaders was born. Now in its 4th year, Courageous Leaders has helped almost 60 LGBT teachers from across the UK gain promotion to school leadership roles as their authentic selves. In addition to intensive coaching, Courageous Leaders offers a network of mutual support for LGBT teachers, supporting them to come out positively at school, to be positive role models and most of all to become effective and confident school leaders.


Every year, as part of the Courageous Leaders programme I share my


story about the homophobic neighbour and I encourage the LGBT teachers to share their stories too. Courage in the Classroom is a compilation of those stories and provides practical advice for school leaders, governors, teachers and anyone committed to LGBT inclusion in schools. As we at Courageous Leaders continue to support our LGBT teachers to achieve their senior leadership roles, I feel that at last schools are becoming more diverse and inclusive places.


“Courage in the Classroom: LGBT teachers share their stories” is available now.


12 www.education-today.co.uk


British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) Back to school,


back to normal This month, JULIA GARVEY, Operations Director at BESA, examines how the education landscape has changed since the beginning of lockdown, and what going back to school might mean for practitioners.


As I write this article teachers across the land are grappling with the dilemma of how to safely return to teaching in schools, rather than remotely. To some extent, I hope that this article is out of date before it is published, and you are reading it safe in the knowledge that all your questions have been answered and your plans are in order. But I fear this will not be the case.


However, what I do know is that teachers are both resilient and


resourceful, and always have their pupils’ best interests at heart. So, notwithstanding the arguments of whether or not schools should reopen, you will have been working diligently to provide your pupils with the best learning experience possible under the current circumstances.


This pandemic has fast-tracked many organisations’ plans, our own


included, to use technology to greater advantage while connecting people remotely. We know from our members that many schools have been using online learning platforms to help deliver the curriculum to pupils during lockdown. Many British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) members have offered extended trials, free CPD training and even free access to help schools make the leap online and to ensure as few pupils as possible are left behind.


Now that you are facing this new challenge of how to return to your


school building, BESA members are again stepping up to offer guidance and support. We are busy working to pull together case studies, advice and insight to help you prepare your facilities, staff and pupils for a return to a classroom that is going to look and feel very different to how it did last term.


From wellbeing to hygiene, from outdoor learning spaces to PPE, and


from early years to post-16, we are working with our members to digest the government’s guidance and integrate it with the best practices that have been established in Denmark, Norway and France, where schools have reopened. We hope to help you avoid some of the early pitfalls that teachers in these countries experienced, while tailoring any guidance to make it work for you – after all there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to this challenge.


At the moment this is a work in progress, so I can’t give you any


great insights here. I can tell you that we are looking both at short term measures to help you reopen this term (should you need to), medium term guidance so you can ready yourself for September and also a longer term assessment of the implications for classroom set-up, teaching styles and health and wellbeing considerations into 2021.


As with all things COVID-19, the situation is fast changing and by the


time you read this our plans may have evolved into something slightly different again. But be assured that BESA, and all our members, are here to help you no matter what that return to schools eventually looks like.


So please watch this space, and keep an eye on our website, for


updates and I promise you we will help you navigate these difficult times as best we can.


ujulia@besa.org.uk June 2020


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