Schools urged to increase efforts to deal with homophobic bullying

Statistics on the scale of homophobic bullying in schools are sparse, but recognition that the issue requires urgent action is gathering support.

An Ofsted report published last week concluded that schools often dismiss homophobic bullying as banter. Of 37 primary and 19 secondary schools questioned, staff said the most common term used as an insult was “gay”. 

Separate polls conducted by Barnardo’s and health, community and youth services provider Metro also found that despite strides towards equality, young people continue to face discrimination in school because of their sexuality.

As a result of the Education Act 2011, Ofsted’s new school inspection framework, introduced in January, means schools are now judged on how they approach homophobic bullying.

But campaigners say responses from schools across the country differ greatly.

Metro works with schools in three London boroughs and says moves to afford schools greater autonomy, while enabling innovative practice in some, can foster inaction among others.

“Schools very much work individually in dealing with homophobic bullying,” says Mark Paterson, head of youth services at Metro. “It depends on the individual school, staff, head teacher and governors. Despite the changes with the Ofsted framework, we haven’t seen a significant shift in schools wanting to engage.”

One school that has been praised for improving practice is Stoke Newington School in Hackney, which is now cited as a good practice example by Ofsted.

Key to the school’s success is the curriculum, which covers LGBT issues. This includes art students evaluating the work of cross-dressing Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry and ICT students examining the life and impact of gay mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing.

Luck of the draw
Suran Dickson, chief executive of charity Diversity Role Models, which helps prevent homo-phobic bullying in UK schools, says it is “luck of the draw” as to whether a lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender child goes to a school that deals with the issue well.

She believes personal, social, health and economic education should be compulsory and wants homophobia to be dealt with in teacher training, which she says would be “

a game changer”. “Teachers coming into the profession would have the knowledge and the tools to deal with it.”

Dickson’s charity works in schools, using LGBT role models to give pupils an understanding of the issues and a “glimpse of people with very happy lives”. It reports 95 per cent improvement in the attitude of young people following workshops.

It visited eight schools in its first term and already has a waiting list of 40 more. “Our work provides the human face of the concept,” she says. “But if that was all schools were to do, it wouldn’t be enough.”

Stonewall’s Education For All campaign provides a range of resources to be used in teacher training and classrooms.

Wes Streeting, head of education at Stonewall, describes work under way in primary schools as “groundbreaking”.

Rather than dealing with the issue of homophobia explicitly, it introduces children to the concept of different family structures.

“Without doing down the majority of schools that take the issue quite seriously, there are some that are still shockingly complacent about the extent of homophobic bullying,” he says.

“Given the detrimental impact on educational success and mental health, it is a negligent attitude. Until all schools are proactive about the issue, we will continue to see too many children failed by the education system.”