posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer

LGBT Education Network Newsletter January 2017

Apologies, the previous newsletter contained a broken link to the LGBT History Month resources. This has been rectified. 

Welcome to the January newsletter for teachers, educationalists and everyone interested in LGBT inclusion in education in Scotland. 

Happy New Year! 🙂

I hope you all had a lovely festive break and are enjoying the new term. 

As next month is LGBT History Month, we’re linking you in with resources and assemblies to use in your schools. There are differentiated lesson activities, a history month quiz, a timeline activity linked to the new LGBT History month poster, and two assemblies – one for primaries one for secondaries.  

In this Newsletter there is also a link to the new Life in Scotland for LGBT Young People survey. This is a chance for LGBT young people to let us know about their lives, their health and their education amongst other topics. Please share this far and wide. 

There will be a follow up email at the start of February with additional Purple Friday activities – remember, this is Friday 24th February this year. 

As ever, if there’s anything you’d like to see more of, please get in contact at info@lgbtyouth.org.uk

LGBT History Month Resources

LGBT Youth Scotland have created resources for schools and teachers to use in order to celebrate LGBT History Month. 

The resources reflect the theme of this year’s history month: Heritage. There are activities looking at important events in LGBT history and also exclusive new poems by Rachel Plummer. These re-imagine Scottish myths and legends to include LGBT identities and themes. 

Additionally there are assemblies, a quiz and an activity matching the events on the poster with the years they occurred. 

Enjoy these free resources and let us know how you got on using them! 

You can download resources here.

Purple Friday

On the last Friday of LGBT History Month we celebrate Purple Friday – a day to stand up against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia and show our support for LGBT young people.

This year we’re asking schools across Scotland to get involved on the 24th February 2017. There are lots of different ways you can take part, from wearing purple to flying the rainbow flag, so we’ve developed a handy information pack to get you started.

The pack contains information about why your school should get involved, as well as some great tips and ideas on what you could do on the day. You can also order your Purple Friday resources by emailing fund@lgbtyouth.org.uk, we’d ask you to do this as soon as possible so we can make sure your order is with you in plenty of time to get involved.

The pack with all these link can be found here. 

Life in Scotland for LGBT Young People

Having listened to what young people said in our last Life in Scotland survey, we are now launching our Life in Scotland survey 2017. We will be using it to see what changes have occurred since the last survey and what effect these emerging issues have had on LGBT young people.

We want to hear from as many LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) young people, between the ages of 13-25 as possible. This will help us gain a full and accurate picture of LGBT young people’s experiences and understand the ways in which LBGT young people’s lives have changed in the last few years.

We want to know more about young people’s experiences of community, safety and health, education, and ‘coming out’ to help us continue to influence decision makers and to continue to keep LGBT young people’s issues on the political agenda.

Our 2012 Life in Scotland Survey has helped us produce reports which were used to influence politicians and policy makers to make decisions which improved the lives of LGBT young people in Scotland, including in these areas:

• Education – young people shared their experiences of the way that LGBT issues are treated in education, showing that homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are still issues for many young people within education.

• Safety – the report focussed on young people’s awareness of rights under hate crime legislation, confidence in the police and criminal justice system, and their feelings of safety in the community.

• Community – young people told us that being accepted in the community improved their confidence.

• Health – the reports showed to what extent LGBT young people are affected by both physical and mental health problems.

Young people can find out more about our Life in Scotland survey 2017 and take part [HERE]. When young people enter, they will be in with the chance of winning a £50 voucher.

Please help us spread the word to your networks and the young people you work with:

Download our promotional image (and this one too) and sample social media posts.

Book of the Month: Primary

Every month we highlight a book for use in schools and suggest activities which can be used to include LGBT voices and identities across the curriculum.

This month: Sissy Duckling by Harvey Fierstein

Content:
This is a heart-warming tale about learning to embrace the special qualities we possess. Instead of building forts and playing sports like other boy ducklings, Elmer wants to bake cakes and put on the halftime show. He is great a big sissy. But when his father is wounded by a hunter, Elmer proves that the biggest sissy can also be the greatest hero.

Suggested Activities:
Another book which looks at both gender stereotyping and what it is to be special.
Scientifically you could use this within a sequence about migratory birds and discuss what really would happen to ducks left behind.
You could also use it to unpack the bullying incidents in the story and the resolution to the relationship between Elmer and Drake – is it realistic?
You could also use it to look at father/son relationships.

For a full list of books for primary schools with LGBT voices or identities, contact info@lgbtyouth.org.uk

We’d love to hear from you!

Let us know what you think of this newsletter – what content would you like more of? Do you have any questions about LGBT inclusion? Do you have events, or resources, you’d like to share?

Get in touch: info@lgbtyouth.org.uk