LULWUT Breakthrough?

[pirateninja]

So I don't know who has been following my escapades in trying to form a Gay-Straight Alliance at my school, but I just received this e-mail last night:

Hi Holly

As I hope you know I had a meeting with Mrs ****** just before half term. Sorry for the delay in feeding back to you but I didn't have your contact details and I haven't had a chance to get over to Wolverhampton on a Saturday to talk to you at the X2Y group. Anyway this is how it went:

The meeting lasted an hour so we talked about a range of issues around LGBT young people and what schools could do to make sure they being inclusive. Mrs ****** said she was keen for everyone to feel included and was happy to discuss a range of ways of doing this. She has concerns about an LGBT group or a gay-straight alliance, I think mainly because she is worried about what would happen if there was some adverse publicity about it. I think most if not all secondary heads would have the same worry - and unfortunately it is quite possible that this could happen. You may have seen on the news recently about a school in Bristol having to withdraw a project for key stage one children on challenging homophobia because of complaints from parents and bad publicity in the Daily Mail. However I did get the impression that she was keen to challenge homophobia in the school but wanted to take things a bit more slowly so as to build a consensus.

She is thinking in terms of three main areas:
1. She will investigate the possibility of a Human Rights and Equalities Group, which could look at LGBT rights as part of its brief, while also discussing other human rights issues such as racism, disability equality, gender etc.
2. She will look at the curriculum to see if it is as inclusive as it could be. She mentioned that she is keen that the school council takes more interest in what is taught through the curriculum, so it would be possible for a group of students to form a group to discuss this and make suggestions through the school council. She also mentioned that the head girl is on a curriculum development committee.
3. She asked me to email her key dates which could provide an opportunity to focus on homophobia and / or LGBT equality (LGBT History Month etc). I've attached the list I sent her.

It was quite a long conversation which covered a lot of ground, but I think those were the main decisions made. I'm very grateful to you for raising this issue because it gave me an opportunity to have a long conversation with the headteacher and also with the school inspector which I probably wouldn't have had otherwise and I hope that some useful things will come out of it.

Email me if you've got any questions and please let me know if there are any developments. Or you could give me a ring - my daytime phone number is (Phone number). You will know better than me what is the best way for you to follow up these ideas if you don't hear anything - whether to go back to the Citizenship Co-ordinator or the Deputy Head for example.

Thanks for giving your permission to use your photo in the One in Three newsletter - it should be out sometime next week I hope

Regards

Ruth ******

Okay, I blocked out my Head Teacher's name and Ruth's second name, but basically, she is part of the LGBT Network in Wolverhampton.

But YES! At least now I have something to work on and follow these up!

[Helen]

That's fantastic, Holly! Great work ^_^

I'd never be able to do that where I am...kind of illegal, don'tcha know.

Awesome stuff

[Trumpetplyer23]

That's great! Nice job!

[musicgirl112233]

Thats awesome!

[beckyg]

Good job Holly! They sound very receptive and that they are going to try hard to make things happen for you!

[pirateninja]

D'you know what's awesome as well? I have been named one of the "Citezenship prefects" for next year, so I can make sure that something is done.

[Jim1454]

That's great Holly. While there is some hesitation on the part of the headmaster, at least you're causing the issue to be discussed! That's great!

[panda]

Good News !! Good Work Holly !!