My experience of tackling homophobic bullying in a Manchester School by Zoe Inoya

I teach at Trinity CE High School, Manchester – an inner-city school with a mixed intake in terms of ability and ethnicity. Three years ago, as part of my certification in PSHE (specialising in SRE), i decided to deliver a scheme of work on homophobic bullying to my then Year 9 Tutor Group.

My decision to raise potentially ‘hazardous’ topics for discussion with Year Nine pupils was based on two issues in my form at the time. One was a case of unpleasant bullying directed at two ‘quieter’ boys and the other was the casual use of homophobic ‘slang’ in everyday language.

My own form was culturally mixed, including pupils from Nigerian, Caribbean and Muslim families and I knew that for some pupils, this would be a difficult area to explore. All parents were informed and happily, no pupils were withdrawn from the lessons.

The series of three lessons were extremely worthwhile and all pupils took part in a variety of activities which included brainstorming all the slang words they know for various sexual orientations and considering their effects when directed at people (the most worrying was ‘pedo’ for homosexual) and discussions around current news/media stories e.g. homophobia in rap music, the ‘Todd’ storyline in Coronation Street and homosexuality in the church.

Naturally there were extremes of opinion – some based on religious grounds and others on ‘macho’ peer pressure. Some pupils were openminded about individual sexual orientation and felt strongly that it should not influence how we are judged by others and a few pupils felt unable to discuss these issues at all.

Despite these differences, pupils were regularly reassured that we were not discussing rights or wrongs and that there are a lot of external pressures which can give us prejudices. All pupils came to the final conclusion that despite our personal beliefs, homophobic bullying is just as unacceptable as any other form of bullying.

I didn’t pretend to eradicate use of homophobic language but I do feel that by raising awareness of a serious issue, small but positive steps were made towards pupils becoming more tolerant and respectful of our differences and individuality.