Organisation shares LGBT+ resources for young children as schools await guidance
Hannah Rashbass
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
While schools submit responses to the government's gender identity guidance consultation, an LGBT+ educator is providing resources for teachers and parents.
The government launched a consultation on its delayed guidance on gender identity in schools this week (19 December). While schools have been waiting, LGBT+ educator Pop’n’Olly has been providing resources, support and workshops to primary school aged children, as well as their parents and teachers.
While guidance from the Regional Schools Commissioners (RSC) is in place for LGBT+ inclusive education at primary school, Ofsted found that the “overwhelming majority” of schools want much more specific guidance about sexual orientation and gender reassignment, both for teachers and parents.
Pop’n’Olly aims to provide this, showing teachers how they can practically implement the RSC guidance. The company began as a YouTube channel when Olly Pike started making LGBT+ inclusive video stories for children. The videos went viral and parents and teachers contacted Pike, thanking him and saying they had been using the videos to teach children about equality and diversity.
The team has now grown to four people and they have created LGBT+ storybooks, classroom resources and teacher training to combat homophobia and transphobia in primary school.
Pop’n’Olly found that while many teachers were keen to implement LGBT+ education, the biggest barrier was having the confidence and knowledge to guide pupils. An anonymous former teacher writing in the Telegraph last week emphasised that students and teachers were using language in very different ways and that the “situation would be clearer if we were using words in the same way”.
Mel Lane (pictured above with colleagues), who worked as a teacher and teacher trainer for 23 years before joining Pop’n’Olly, explains that language is a focus of their training sessions so that all teachers feel confident answering questions about gender identity and sexual orientation.
When it comes to engaging primary aged children, stories are key. Pop’n’Olly has written several fiction and non-fiction books including Little Red Riding Dude, which is about a wolf who likes to wear dresses and is aimed at combating gender stereotypes.
There is also a gay fairy tale romance and a transgender Cinderella story. Pike said: “Homophobia is linked so closely to anxieties around gender, which is why we spend so much time as a company trying to bust these, so children feel there are many ways to be a human.”
Jack Lynch, who leads the workshops in schools, outlines that the stories are incredibly successful at engaging the children. They explain that after one session, three or four children put their hands up to say that their friend has two dads or they live with their aunties.
They add: “It's so easy to forget that LGBT+ families already exist in schools, and so many children have this in their lives already.”
Research finds that LGBT+ bullying is one of the most common forms of bullying found in UK schools. Just Like Us found that 74 per cent of LGBT+ people who had never had positive messaging from their school about being LGBT+ had contemplated suicide.
According to Think2Speak 78 per cent of trans youth experience bullying at school and only six per cent feel supported. Pike emphasises that “while there are a lot of rainbows and unicorns in our sessions, ultimately this work is about saving lives.”
