Schools Diversity Week

As the Schools and Colleges Officer at Just Like Us, I’m incredibly proud to work for an organisation with the goal of helping LGBT+ young people lead awesome lives. One way we try to accomplish this is through our annual School Diversity Week (June 22-26). The week is an annual event where primary and secondary schools as well as further education colleges use Just Like Us’ free toolkit to celebrate LGBT+ equality in education. Schools take part to empower pupils to plan events with our resource pack full of ideas, lesson plans and support as well as to boost their inspection performance and challenge homophobia, biphobia and transphobia with fun and inclusive events. Last year, over 2000 establishments representing 1.4 million young people took part.

When it became clear that educational establishments would be closing in the run-up to this year’s week, we had to be inventive. First and foremost, we knew that we didn’t want to postpone or abandon the week. Our research shows that LGBT+ young people are often among the most vulnerable at home and rely on the support networks they create in school, youth groups or when they socialise with friends outside the house. LGBT+ youths are more likely to confide in a friend than a family member about their sexuality or gender identity for example. As a charity focused on working with and for young LGBT+ people, we knew it was our duty to continue to provide opportunities for them to engage with LGBT+ content and the wider community from home.

From this small idea – to continue to engage young people from home – we started to plan School Diversity Week: Home Edition. The basic principle behind the week is to provide LGBT+ young people and educators across the country the opportunity to make use of our content remotely while providing further opportunities to be involved with the wider community.

We have, of course, had to adjust our offer to better reach young people at home. Therefore, we are creating brand new resources, designed to be delivered by educators at a distance, to make LGBT+ education easy during this difficult time. This will allow them to continue to run LGBT+ themed lessons throughout the week and provide opportunities for young people to engage with our materials.

Aside from our traditional toolkit we will provide online masterclasses. This will bring experts in areas as diverse as LGBT+ history, filmmaking and biology together to create and deliver sessions that contribute to an  inclusive curriculum Young people, educators and parents of primary age children will log on to view a session (of around twenty minutes) with someone experienced and an expert in their field. They’ll have the chance to access a high-quality learning experience which wouldn’t ordinarily feature in day-to-day education on a topic related to the LGBT+ community!

Afterwards, we’re hoping to build on the masterclass by offering a live Q&A and to create follow up activities for young people to complete.

Lastly, social media plays a big role in ensuring young LGBT+ people feel seen, heard and respected during the lockdown. From 30th March onwards, we have launched #JLUatHome across our social media channels. This hashtag will accompany a range of content aimed at LGBT+ youth to engage them with a different focus every day. We cover wellbeing tips, LGBT+ history, our ambassador’s own stories and sharing words of support from influential LGBT+ people. Recently, former MP Chris Smith (the first openly gay male MP) shared encouraging messages for young people.

The aim of all of this – from #JLUatHome to our revised School Diversity Week – is to continue to do our bit to ensure the lives of LGBT+ young people are as awesome as possible. Even more so during this difficult and often isolating time, LGBT+ youths need our support to feel that little bit more connected. At Just Like Us we believe every single LGBT+ young person should have the chance to lead an awesome life. It is our shared responsibility to make sure that happens.

For further information on Just Like Us, to register for School Diversity Week or even to help us with masterclasses; please visit our website or email me on [email protected].

Anthony Melia,

Schools and Colleges Officer