Best Practice

Homophobia: What do you see?

Pastoral issues Behaviour Pupil wellbeing
How much homophobic bullying in schools do we, as teachers, actually see? A senior school leader looks at the prevalence of incidents and asks what we, as schools, can do

I am writing this piece anonymously because I wish to protect the identity of my school and students, rather than myself. I hope one day anonymising won’t be necessary.

I teach students who are openly gay. To me, who didn’t even come out to my family until after university, this makes me both proud and envious; I wish I had had their courage.

A few years ago, a friend asked me if it was “easier” nowadays to come out. Yes, I said. Our students are much less likely to be bullied like we were, I said. And I truly believed this until recently.

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