No Outsiders in Our School

Teaching the Equality Act in Primary Schools

Andrew Moffat

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351703833
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This brand new resource provides much needed support for every primary school in the delivery of the objectives outlined in the Equality Act 2010; and in the provision of personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) for every child. This resource provides teachers with a curriculum that promotes equality for all sections of the community. But more than that, the resource aims to bring children and parents on board from the start so that children leave primary school happy and excited about living in a community full of difference and diversity, whether that difference is through ethnicity, gender, ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or religion.  The resource includes 5 lesson plans for every primary school year group (EYFS- Y6) based upon a selection of 35 picture books. Issues addressed include: gender and gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, disability and age. There is an introductory chapter explaining the legal framework behind the resource, quoting Ofsted and the DfE. A second chapter focuses on creating the whole school ethos through assemblies, school displays and after school clubs. A third chapter focuses on engaging parents. Age 7+ Format 96pp, paperback (245 x 171mm) Andrew has been a full time teacher for 20 years and is currently the Assistant Head Teacher in a large primary school in inner city Birmingham.

Chapter One
Introduction

Introduction

In 2007 I wrote a sequence of lesson plans to help teachers deliver lessons on equality with a lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender (LGBT) focus, called Challenging Homophobia in Primary Schools: An Early Years Resource. Since then I have continually rewritten and adapted these resources and taught the lessons in many different schools. The opening line of the resource was, ‘We need to teach five year olds that gay and lesbian men and women exist’ (Moffat, 2007, p1). We are nine years further in to the new century and I am overjoyed to say that I’ve changed my mind about this first line.

Eight years on, I don't believe that we need to be teaching children that gay men and lesbian women exist because children know that already. Any child who has a television has seen a gay couple or a gay character. Any child living in a family, in contact with uncles, aunts, cousins, stepbrothers and stepsisters, or in a street where neighbours talk to one another, is going to have been in contact with a gay person. What we now need to be teaching is that homophobia once existed but we don't have it in our school today, and that to be a person who is gay or lesbian or transgender or bi-sexual is normal, acceptable and OK. Children also need to be learning that they may identify or may not identify as LGBT as they grow up, and that whoever they grow into as an adult is also perfectly normal and acceptable.

Another shift for me since 2007 is in the particular way in which I deliver this work in my school. No longer should we separate LGBT education from education about other equalities; equality is best taught in the context of British law, where all protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010 are included in a curriculum that celebrates difference. So not only are people of different sexual orientations welcome in our primary school, people of different ethnicities, genders, gender identities, religions, ages and abilities are also most welcome. There are no outsiders in our school; to quote the South African social rights activist Desmond Tutu (2004), ‘Everyone is an insider, no matter their beliefs, whatever their colour, gender or sexuality’ (No Outsiders Project Team, 2010, pix).

I am not the only one to have changed since 2007; the law around this work has shifted dramatically in eight years: we now have legal gay marriages across the UK and Ireland, for example. In fact, Ireland became the first country to hold a referendum on equal gay marriage in 2015 and the ‘Yes’ vote signalled more than ever the public perception on equalities. The Equality Act 2010 makes it quite clear that discrimination is not to be tolerated in society and we now have Ofsted asking schools to demonstrate how they are tackling homophobic bullying, teaching about different families and promoting British values.

However, at the same time, we have a perceived worrying rise in the radicalisation of young people and there is currently little clear guidance on how schools can meet the needs of children who are hearing different messages outside the school walls to the messages of equality that they hear inside. The election campaign of 2015 featured an interesting dialogue between the British Labour MP Tristram Hunt and a schoolboy, as reported by The Independent newspaper:

‘Do you know who you’d vote for?’ asked the man hoping to become the next Education Secretary.

‘Ukip,’ came the response from the schoolboy.

‘You’d vote Ukip? Very good,’ a panicked Mr Hunt replied.

‘Why’s that?’

‘It might get all the foreigners out,’ the kid explained.

(Dathan, 2015, n.p.)

At the time, this was seen as an embarrassing blunder for a Labour MP on the campaign trail, but of course for educators it also demonstrates the presence of ideas in schools that we don’t want to hear. How can we ensure that these ideas are not the accepted norm on the playground? We can’t be simply telling children that their beliefs are wrong or unacceptable; we have to be delivering a curriculum that enables children to understand the benefits that exist in a society where diversity and difference are celebrated. Furthermore, we need our children to want to be part of that society, and we have to sell it to them; that desire may not come naturally by itself.

In conclusion, the aim of this resource is to provide teachers with a curriculum that promotes equality for all sections of the community. But more than that, this resource aims to bring children and parents or carers (hereafter referred to as ‘parents’) on board from the start so that children leave our primary schools happy and excited about living in a community full of difference and diversity, whether that is through ethnicity, gender, ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or religion. Children must be excited about living in a diverse twenty-first century, and want to keep it like that – not fight against it.

Acknowlegements

The ‘no outsiders’ quote by Desmond Tutu formed the basis for a project that ran from 2006 to 2008, supporting primary teachers to develop strategies to address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender equality in primary schools. The ‘no outsiders’ project was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and paved the way for this resource. Most of the ideas in this resource originated within those two years and I would like to thank that fantastic and brave team for starting me on my journey.

I also want to thank Hazel Pulley at Parkfield Community School in Birmingham and the school staff team for being so brilliant, Mark Jenett for being so full of good advice and Annie Hargreaves for giving me the idea in the first place. Also thanks to David for being so supportive.

Chapter Two
Preparing Your Path – Creating the Whole-School Ethos

Preparing your path – creating the whole-school ethos

One of the main things I have learned from the three schools where I have delivered this resource is to ensure that work on equalities is embedded across the school. For this work to succeed, there needs to be a whole-school ethos to which everyone signs up.

How do we create an ethos?

Governors

First, the governors need to be on board. Transparency is critical and the school leadership team (SLT) needs to be clear about the vision and aims in order to take it to the governors. Take a copy about this resource, and all the books it makes reference to, to a governors’ meeting and give everyone half an hour to read the texts. In my current school some governors borrowed books to take home and read in detail, in order to be confident about the proposals. Be clear that we are not asking for governors’ permission to do this work; the government is already asking schools to promote equality and diversity, and Ofsted is judging schools on the strategies they are using. But, at the same time, we do need our governing bodies to be moving with us and in full understanding of our aims and expectations.

Staff training

Once the governors have been informed of the vision, aims and proposals, staff training is essential to ensure that all staff (including teaching assistants (TAs) and lunch-time supervisors) have the skills to deliver the messages we are promoting. We need a common language to be used by all staff across the school and on the playground to challenge any discrimination or prejudicial behaviour that arises and to promote the vision we are creating.

Of course, some staff may not feel comfortable with some of the messages. It is unlikely that anyone will have tensions arising from saying to children that a person who uses a wheelchair or hearing aid is welcome at the school, but a person’s faith may provide a tension with saying that it is OK to be gay. This is where the Equality Act 2010 is helpful. It clearly states:

The public sector Equality Duty came into force across Great Britain on 5 April 2011. It means that public bodies have to consider all individuals when carrying out their day-to-day work – in shaping policy, in delivering services and in relation to their own employees.

It also requires that public bodies:

• have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination
• advance equality of opportunity
• foster good relations between different people when carrying out their activities.

(Government Equalities Office, 2013, p1)

The wording of this makes it plain to public bodies (ie schools) that promoting some of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act while ignoring others is simply against UK law. So we cannot promote an ethos where people of diverse faith are welcome but people of diverse sexual orientation are not. Similarly, children need to be taught that this is the law, as when children eventually leave school and get a job, they will not stay employed for long if they say to black colleagues, ‘I am racist, so I don’t want to work with you!’ or to gay colleagues, ‘As my faith says homosexuality is a sin, I don’t want to work with you.’

The lesson plans in this resource are all based on children’s picture books, and I have aimed to make them as accessible as possible for following and delivering. Hold a staff meeting and give out the books for everyone to read. Try out the role plays and games and have the discussions around challenging potential questions (see Chapter 5 ‘Simple answers to challenging questions’). By far the most effective schools are those that have taken these plans and made them their own. Some schools teach these lessons as one-offs during personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE), while some spend a whole week on a text in literacy lessons, teasing out language and developing inference skills. Both strategies work; it’s the way in which the school embraces the ethos that is critical rather than individual lessons. My advice is to identify a senior staff member to be responsible for overseeing the delivery of this resource and to monitor the delivery and whether the aims are being met throughout the school year.

Schools may want to lead their own training or there are many trainers available around the country who will happily come in for a half-day or a staff inset day. Some trainers will use their own materials, but the messages will be consistent, so it doesn’t really matter which plans you use as long as your ethos is clear. It is very useful to have open discussions in staff meetings, particularly if some staff are uncomfortable with some of the messages, but keep in mind that opting out of the ethos is not an option for staff; we can have the discussion but the bottom line is that UK law says that schools need to promote equality of opportunity and that includes all equality.

Making the message clear

Mission statement

As visitors enter the school building there needs to be some signal that here is a school that promotes diversity: we are a place where everyone is welcome and all difference is celebrated. A mission statement makes the school ethos clear and also needs to include...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Preface
• Chapter One Introduction
• Chapter Two Preparing your path – creating the whole - school ethos
• Chapter Three Assemblies–creating the whole - school ethos
• Chapter Four Engaging parents – lessons learned from three schools
• Chapter Five Simple answers to challenging questions
• Chapter Six Coming out in primary schools
• Chapter Seven The resource
• Appendix
• References