Following the recent Pride & Progress Educators Network meeting, I’ve been inspired to shared my own reflections on the past year.
In April 2022, I started at a new school and got asked to prepare a virtual Pride assembly. Strangely enough this was the first time that I’d been asked to do this, despite being in the classroom for ten years. That being said, I’d never volunteered myself either.
As an ITT, I’d not really talked about my sexuality with colleagues in school (though this was more to do with me creating a ‘teacher identity’ than actively hiding my sexuality). As an NQT, I was fortunate enough to be in a school where elements of representation was not in short supply: there were LGBT+ staff at different levels in the school from the headteacher down. However, nobody really talked about it. I was openly gay in the staffroom but in my classroom I still adopted a fiercely ‘professional’ identity. I was honest about my partner if students asked, but it was never information that I volunteered.
If I’m honest, I was largely comfortable with this. I felt that it worked as part of the ‘teacher persona’ I created (I never really spoke with students about other elements of my personal life either). But just over a year ago, following that Pride assembly, that changed.
At my new school, Year 11 left not long after I started and I barely knew them beyond us greeting each other while I did my duties on the gate and yard. Despite only having been there a few weeks, I was pleasantly surprised to be given a leaving card from one student, thanking me for sharing my story on the Pride assembly and for being open about who I was, because it made him feel less alone.
This made me realise that by enforcing this strict ‘professional’ line, I could be seen to be denying LGBT+ students the opportunity to see others like themselves in the world around them. In an area where the local council recently voted against displaying a Pride flag during June and transphobic attitudes being rife in the wider world (whether this be on social media, from news outlets or the very people elected to represent us), representation is crucial.
This past year, I’ve changed my approach. Working with other staff on getting the school The Rainbow Flag award has really helped me consider how I want to use my experience (as well as the learning I’m doing myself, thanks to the likes of the ‘Pride & Progress’ community) to improve the LBGT+ inclusion. We’ve worked on improving the usualisation of LGBT+ representation in the curriculum, as well as improving the CPD offer for staff around understanding how to challenge and prevent homophobia and transphobia (both of which have had a great impact).
My proudest moment, however, has come from working with an LGBT+ student group. It started as an after-school club to feedback about some of the work we were doing for The Rainbow Flag Award but has slowly become an action group. Over the year, they’ve been doing their own learning about LGBT+ history and experiences and got a lot from attending The Proud Trust’s LGBT+ Youth Summit. The outcome has been their own action plan for improving inclusion at the school, enlisting the support of various staff stakeholders (they even have their own project management plan).
By far my proudest moment was them presenting this to the Headteacher and Personal Development Assistant Headteacher, with our Headteacher going on to stress that he wants to meet them half-termly next year so that they can “hold [me] accountable” (his words) so that LGBT+ inclusion continues to develop and remain a priority. There were tears (happy ones).
Sadly, I’ll be leaving this school and this group of students this summer to return to my old trust, though I’m hoping that this will give me the opportunity to do similar work on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across multiple school communities. In the meantime, the student group I’m leaving behind have become determined that their action plan for next year result in a lasting legacy. The support they’ve secured from staff in the school will ensure it happens and I’ll be keeping in contact with the school as I can’t wait to see what they achieve next.
