Page 32 - Fyne winter 2014

Bournemouth – Working together
- Celebrating diversity!
We are delighted that our work in
Bournemouth to tackle homophobic
bullying has once again been recognised
by Stonewall, placing Bournemouth 6th in
their Education Equality index.
The Council and a range of local partners
have developed teaching materials that
celebrate diversity and help tackle bullying
in schools. Our partners include the
Diverse Dorset Consortium, the Safer
Stronger Communities team, Dorset Police,
Next Generation Young Citizens, TEAM
(Together Everyone Achieves More), Space
LGBTQ Youth Project, Chatterboxes
Disability Project, DEED, Re-Think Mental
Health, Dorset Body Positive (HIV and
Aids) and Dorset Race Equality.
We have also supported the Bullying
Intervention Training by Kidscape, for
schools and youth work staff. This helps
develop skills to keep young people safe and
improve their confidence levels, which they
can then cascade to young people who have
been or who are at risk of being bullied.
Giving advice and guidance:
The ‘Bournemouth Anti-Bullying Pack’
outlines what schools must, should and
could do in relation to Anti-Bullying
ethos, policy, professional development,
curriculum, early intervention and support,
and accountability.
Our primary school lesson plans celebrate
‘Different Families’ and feature in the
Stonewall ‘Primary Best Practice’ Guide.
The lessons cover same sex parents alongside
other family types and tackle the use of
homophobic language in a subtle way by
exploring different families. As well as
developing children’s self awareness the
lessons helped give them a sense of pride in
their own family.
Our teaching pack for secondary schools
builds on the primary Family Diversity
lessons. Young people are helped to
recognise social diversity within Britain
today, including the range of families and
relationships; the range of relationships
choices and recognise the importance of
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