Free anti-homophobia DVD for every school in UK
January 25th, 2010
Every secondary school in Britain will receive a free Hollyoaks/Skins-style DVD in February, as part of Stonewall’s campaign to end homophobic bullying.
The DVD, called FIT, uses lively writing and a hiphop soundtrack to bring to life the reality of homophobia in schools.
The Times newspaper has called FIT “A kind of gritty take on the shiny E4 drama Glee”.
Research released in 2009 found that That’s so gay’ is used as an insult in 95% of secondary schools. One in five secondary school teachers said they would not feel comfortable addressing gay issues in the classroom, and one in six said they would not feel confident responding if a pupil were to ask questions regarding gay issues.
FIT is an adaptation of Stonewall’s highly successful play for schools, which was seen on tour by 20,000 pupils in Britain in 2008-9.
“Overwhelming positive response to FIT as a touring play – from pupils and teachers alike – convinced us that a feature film would help every secondary school in Britain to challenge homophobic bullying,” said Chris Gibbons, Stonewall’s Senior Education Officer.
“Teachers are still ill-equipped and unsure of how to deal with gay issues in their classrooms. Stonewall’s film for schools will help plug this gap.”
FIT was produced with the support of a consortium of funders and will be sent out to every secondary school by the end of February with the support of the teachers’ union NASUWT. For more information, visit www.stonewall.org.uk/FIT
Watch a trailer for FIT:
‘[...] “That’s so gay” is used as an insult in 95% of secondary schools.’
That low? In truth, I have a hard time imagining one where it _isn’t_ used.
Josy ∼ January 25th, 2010 10:25 pmI don’t ever remember “gay” being used at my old school (although, to be fair, I wasn’t actively looking out for it).
It always seemed quite a lame insult, I think. There are so many more hardcore words out there which can be used instead. :D
Liz ∼ March 9th, 2010 8:13 pmi love watching this at school where do you think i can get a copy ?
beth ∼ October 9th, 2010 6:46 pmThe Samaritans sent out a really high-quality dvd and resources pack to every school in the UK a few years ago.
It dealt with emotional literacy, how to really listen to people, how to negotiate instead of fighting, and so on.
Almost every school contacted months later said that they hadn’t used it because the teachers felt inadequately trained to deal with it. They wanted specialist teachers properly trained in conflict resolution, non-violent communication skills, and in dealing with distressed kids who may be coping with everything from bullying to incest to … you name it.
It’s pretty sad when you consider that people who are trained as teachers aren’t automatically taught those skills to a degree where they feel solid and certain of how to use them.
The few schools that DID use the package did so because their local Samaritans branches created a series of workshops around it, doing some training with teachers beforehand, and then leading the workshops themselves with teachers in support roles.
Those schools got a hugely positive result from teachers and kids. The kids mostly went on to ask for training as peer counsellors, and the teachers reported a drastic reduction in bullying and fighting.
If Stonewall wants to make a difference, just posting out dvds isn’t going to cut it. Most adults feel ill-equipped to talk things through with kids when there may be deep emotional and sexual issues (let’s face it, most of us can’t bring ourselves to talk like mature, reasonable people to other adults about this stuff), so teachers will tend to avoid it given the choice.
Running workshops every term in every school in the nation would make a real difference. Either the government would have to fund specialist teachers for every school to run mandatory emotional literacy classes (which they won’t), or charities like Stonewall, the Samaritans, MIND, and others will have to roll out a national programme. And that will be damn expensive in terms of funding and volunteer time.
Kaz ∼ October 12th, 2010 4:16 pm