Management Information Sheet
Challenging Homophobic Language
In November 2012 I was seconded for one day a week by "Education Strategy and Commissioning, Children's Services" to lead in Norfolk on the Stonewall Education Champions programme which is part of Stonewall's Education for All programme. Through this programme, local authorities work with Stonewall and each other to establish ways in which they can address homophobic bullying and promote a safe and inclusive learning environment for all young people. Over 60 local authorities have signed up to be part of it; including all the local authorities in the eastern region.
The role focuses on three key areas:
- Policy and practice of local authority
- Working with schools
- Working with young people and community
My Action Plan for the next 12 months focuses on the following areas:
- Working in partnership
- Keeping everyone aware of their responsibilities and new developments
- Collaborating and sharing good practice examples
- Providing schools with the skills needed to challenge bullying and homophobic language
- Identifying the challenges and measuring success
- Involving young people and their parents
Key developments so far include:
- Setting up the Challenging Homophobia Partnership group - a multi-agency group that meets 6 times a year. Schools are welcome to join - if your school would like to join, do contact me
- Organising training sessions on celebrating difference - challenging homophobia for primary and secondary school staff.
- Celebrating and encouraging school involvement in national and local LGB events - so far these have included LGBT History Month (in February), IDAHO day (17th May) and Norfolk's Gay Pride march in July
- Setting up a working party on challenging homophobic language to develop resources for schools
- Completed Stonewall's Local Authority Equality Index. Last year of the 42 Local Authorities, who submitted this, Norfolk came 14th and it was a very good first entry! The next entry is due shortly
- Linking with Norfolk Healthy Schools who are offering an Enhanced Project on challenging homophobia for schools. Contact Josie Wells
One of my areas of focus is to help schools challenge homophobic bullying and homophobic language. The use of the word 'gay' as something derogatory (usually meaning 'rubbish') has become endemic in our schools. I set up a working party to focus on this and we agreed that Headteachers were critical in influencing how we tackle this issue. Many of you will have seen the earlier ecourier which outlined a survey schools can do to establish a baseline of the extent of homophobic language in their school.
How serious is the issue?
Stonewall's School Report (2012) found that of the 1600 gay young people, aged between 11 and 19, surveyed:
- 96% had heard homophobic remarks such as 'poof' or 'lezza' used in school
- Almost all (99%) hear phrases such as 'that's so gay' or 'you're so gay' in school
- Only half of lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils report that their schools say homophobic bullying is wrong, even fewer in faith schools at 37 percent
- Only ten per cent of gay pupils report that teachers challenge homophobic language every time they hear it
- More than half (55%) of lesbian, gay and bisexual young people experience homophobic bullying in Britain's schools
- One in three (32%) gay pupils who experience homophobic bullying change their plans for future education because of it
- More than half (56%) of gay young people deliberately harm themselves, which can include cutting or burning themselves (this compares to other studies which estimated 1 in 10 i.e. 10% for young people in general (NSPCC)
- Nearly one in four (23 per cent) young people have tried to take their own life at some point. In comparison, Samaritans says seven per cent of all young people in general ever try to take their own life
Why should this matter concern schools?
This Government has made it clear that they want to eradicate homophobia and homophobic bullying.
Schools are bound by recent legislation such as the Equality Act (2010) and Education and Inspections Act (2006) which outlines in detail the responsibilities of school's to address bullying, discrimination and harassment.
Ofsted now looks to schools to combat homophobic bullying as part of their inspection framework. The latest advice to Ofsted inspectors (January 2014) on exploring a school's response to homophobic bullying encourages inspectors in primary schools to find out from pupils
- Whether they hear the word 'gay' being used in a derogatory way
- If they are ever picked on for not being a 'typical girl' or 'typical boy'.
- Whether they learn about different types of families (single parent, living with grandparents, having two mums or two dads)
In secondary schools, as well as the above, inspectors are asked to explore whether:
- There is any homophobic bullying or name calling in school or on social media sites
- If a gay pupil was 'out' in school, that pupil would feel safe from bullying
- They have learned about homophobic/transphobic bullying and ways to stop it happening in school
- They learn in school about different types of families - whether anyone is, or would be, teased about having same-sex parents
There are also areas they will focus on specifically in terms of Senior Leaders and Governors. For more details click here. It is listed in zip folder under 'Exploring school's actions to respond to homophobic bullying'.
This is challenging work but also extremely rewarding. We all want to develop schools that embrace diversity and challenging homophobia is only one aspect of this process, but a very important one. If schools are challenging homophobic language, they will also be challenging all forms of derogatory language that children and young people often use to describe children with disabilities, race, religion and gender and so on. Attached is an appendix with ideas and resources of how your school can challenge homophobic language. Many of the ideas have been developed in Norfolk and schools that have used some of the resources have advised a noticeable decrease in the use of homophobic language (e.g. Hemblington Primary, Horning Primary, Fairstead Primary, Acle High, Lynn Grove High).
I hope your school will take up this challenge and look forward to hearing from those schools that join me in the quest to eradicate homophobic language.