On Friday 1st July I attended the Stonewall Education for All Conference. It was good to have had a personal contact with Chris Gibbons (Senior Education Officer, Stonewall) who knew Marjorie personally and also remembered her speaking at a Stonewall conference a few years ago.
The morning started with coffee and croissants! I was impressed by the numbers of delegates (around 250) and also the distances that others had travelled, there were people from as far afield as Cumbria and Devon, it made me appreciate how lucky we are to live in London and have some of these facilities on our doorstep.
Ben Summerskill gave an entertaining introduction to the Conference and briefly explained about the work that Stonewall are doing with schools, both senior and primary, in the fight against homophobic bullying.
Nick Gibb MP (Minister for Education) spoke about how the government are committed to dealing with bullying and how they feel that academic standards will improve if pupils can feel safe and secure within the school environment. He stressed the need for pupils’ language to be more respectful. He explained that the Govt can’t “prescribe” and won’t dictate but will use all its tools to send the message that homophobic bullying is unacceptable. He recognised that the Govt are not the experts but organisations such as Stonewall and “Schools Out” are. He explained that schools must take responsibility for their own environment, that the anti bullying guidelines have been streamlined making information more accessible and useful. The current Education Bill will give Heads and teachers the control, and enabling them to empower their staff. He stressed that while he is in Govt the education world should be clear that the use of the word gay is as unacceptable as any racial slur and expects teachers to react in the same way they would for racial abuse.
Gok Wan, fashion guru and openly gay personality, then read a dramatic and chilling account of how he was, as a teenager, bullied for being fat, mixed race and gay.
There followed a time for questions and comments. It was mentioned that the media must support this too and how damaging the media can be. Especially the Daily Mail!! Some schools have met with resistance from parents and consequently the press when trying to tackle gay issues. Independent schools were mentioned, and how legislation affects them or not!
Another delegate mentioned that whilst the bullies may be dealt with we mustn’t forget the victims, who can often be ignored.
There was much discussion about positive role models for children who do not conform to the usual stereotype.
We then split into smaller groups, which we had chosen before the conference. Working in Early Years (with 2 to 5year olds) I felt that the most appropriate break out group for me was Celebrating Difference. How to tackle homophobia in Primary Schools. It proved to be very inspiring and encouraging to see some of the very positive steps that can be taken in primary schools to promote a more respectful environment, where homophobic language is challenged and difference is celebrated.
Stonewall is working closely with a number of primary schools around the country introducing “Different Families Same Love” to even the youngest of classes. This is being done through interesting projects supported by resources provided by Stonewall. Raising awareness to children that lots of families do not conform to the usual, Daddy Mummy and 2 children!!! We received our own pack of resources including a very interesting DVD which schools can use for whole staff training. The key is to get the support from the top down, the governors; the Head right down to the lunchtime support staff, without this whole school approach implementation is difficult. Schools do also need local authority support.
Morning Coffee!!!
The break out group that I chose for the second session was “Working with Faith Communities.” There were 3 interesting speakers. Paddy Storrie a Deputy Head of a Christian comprehensive school in Hertfordshire, Janine Clements Director of Jewish Action and Training and Lyndsey Buchanan, Citizen and Cohesion Advisor for Waltham Forest’s Change for Children Team. We heard from Paddy about how they’ve addressed homophobic bullying, focussing on respect rather than sexuality. He explained that they’ve moved on from a rather outdated view of “We don’t care what you think or say outside school ...you don’t do it here” where this is no longer an appropriate standard.
Janine Clements spoke gently and thought provokingly. She used a selection of quotes to illustrate her points. “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” (Desmond Tutu)
“All wrong doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong doing remain?” (Buddha).
Lyndsey finished this session speaking about how Waltham Forest have included local Religious faith leaders in discussions and have drawn up a document that they have signed so that if they meet resistance from individuals parents in schools they are able to say that their religious leaders are supporting the work that is being done within the borough.
Lunch! A super buffet lunch was provided and a time for chatting with the other delegates. I introduced myself to Chris Gibbons and thanked him personally for having us; he spoke very warmly of Marjorie. I also spoke to Elly Barnes who had recently met Joanne at one of her workshops. I mixed about taking the opportunity to talk about what we do at FTL, trying especially to speak to those who were London based. (We all had name badges and where we were from, so I peered at peoples badges trying to ascertain whether they were “local” or not!!). I gave out some of our leaflets to those who expressed an interest and who felt they may be able to use them.
I was aware that Marjorie was far more experienced than me in the field of education but felt proud to be representing FTL and confident that Marjorie would be delighted that we were there.
The afternoon session started in the auditorium with “The Changing Policy Context: How the Education System Will Support Your Work to Tackle Homophobia”.
A representative from the DFE reiterated Nick Gibbs assurance that the Govt will continue to tackle homophobic bullying. That the Education White Paper and general education policies are building on this, and are also committed to improving initial teacher training. It was mentioned again that the govt want to be less prescriptive, share best practice, for schools to be accountable, to tackle homophobic language and to give more powers to teachers. Govt want schools to drive this for themselves. They are thinking about removing the 24hour notice for detentions (this was met with mixed reactions from teachers in the audience).
This session included a keynote address from Susan Gregory from Ofsted who announced that they are reducing the number of care areas that they will inspect from around 20 to 4!
1).Pupils achievement,
2).Teaching,
3).Leadership
4) Behaviour and Safety
Stonewall explained that they are working closely with the Department of Education providing training and resources’ to reflect and support the national policy. They are also supporting local authorities and individual schools to implement legislation.
What does this all mean?
The Govt will have a very different relationship with schools, they’ll be stepping back and letting school s take control, there will be more accountability. The local authorities will have better links with organizations with expertise such as Stonewall. Govt is committed to tackling prejudice based bullying.
The final keynote address was from Roger Crouch whose 15 year old son committed suicide last year. Dominic may not even have been gay but his death was as a direct result of homophobic bullying that had affected him so much that he saw no other way forward than to kill himself. Roger spoke with dignity and passion giving a moving account of Dom’s last 48 hours. It was, quite frankly shocking; I’m not ashamed to say that I was reduced to tears.
I feel very privileged to have been able to attend such a professional, interesting and worthwhile event. I am encouraged to see the work of Stonewall and the enthusiasm of so many people involved directly or indirectly with education. There is some very positive work being done in Primary and Secondary schools, unfortunately there is still much to be done and lots of schools to reach. But it appears that things are moving in the right direction and the hope is that in the future our schools will be places where ALL children can feel safe and accepted for who they are.
By Liz