7,000 schools will be learning more about diverse families, how to be allies and queer history
BY IONE GILDROY, IMAGE BY JUST LIKE US
More than 7,000 schools across the UK will celebrate LGBTQIA inclusion and allyship for School Diversity Week, which is taking place from 24-28 June.
The UK-wide celebration of equality is run by LGBTQIA young people’s charity Just Like Us. Primary and secondary schools that have signed up for the week will be able to access LGBTQIA-inclusive resources for free.
Pupils will learn about diverse families, how to be allies, queer history and hear inclusive stories from LGBTQIA children’s authors.
Bridgerton actor Jonathan Bailey, a patron of Just Like Us, said: “I am a very, very proud patron of Just Like Us. School Diversity Week is an important time to learn and to celebrate LGBTQIA young people and allies. More than 7,000 schools across the UK are signed up to take part in School Diversity Week this year. If you are taking part, you are helping make history.”
“Growing up, for me, I struggled to find representation and I know I would have benefited massively from even having the conversation around queer lives in school. Just to hear the words in the classroom. It’s initiatives like School Diversity Week that are making that happen.”
Schools will learn about LGBTQIA inclusion and allyship through getting involved in a range of activities, from LGBTQIA-inclusive lessons, assemblies and talks from Just Like Us, to fundraisers with Rainbow Ribbons and a Rainbow Friday dress-up day.
Kay, a teacher at a secondary school in Wales which is taking part in the week, said: “Intersectionality needs to be discussed, and young people educated if we want to ensure all young people feel fully safe and included in our communities.”
A secondary school pupil said they are excited for School Diversity Week because: “I think it widens the school community. It strengthens us because then we know that everyone is accepted, everyone gets treated equally.”
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