Stonewall welcomes Estyn report on LGBT inclusive education

We warmly welcome Estyn’s report, which outlines good practice for supporting LGBT learners in schools and colleges in Wales.

The report provides a useful set of standards for schools in Wales to work towards to create a truly inclusive education system where all learners can thrive, be themselves and succeed. 

Stonewall Cymru’s 2017 School Report highlighted how far education providers in Wales need to go to support their LGBT pupils, with more than half of LGBT young people (54 per cent) in Wales and 73 per cent of trans young people having faced bullying in schools for being themselves. 

This is made worse by the fact that a majority of pupils in Wales (62 per cent) said there isn’t an adult at schools they can talk to about being LGBT.  

The Estyn report highlights the need for schools and colleges to ensure that the teaching of diversity and inclusion, including LGBT identities, is integrated into learning experiences; that homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying are recorded and acted upon; and ensuring that all staff engage in regular training to address discrimination and promoting diversity.

We strongly support all of these developments and they are powerful recommendations which could pave the way to change lives. If all Welsh schools and colleges implemented these recommendations it would transform the experiences of LGBT young people in education. 

We are glad to see that there is an importance placed on the need to ensure that learning celebrates diversity and actively promotes inclusion. Only through understanding and providing information can we tackle the abuse and discrimination of the future.

All young people in Wales have the right to receive an education that prepares them for life in modern Wales and it is vital that their education and curriculum reflects the full diversity of the world they live in.