Techniques to train others:
primary schools
Caroline Ellis
• Variety of exercises for you to use, adapt,
reject
• Examples of ways to use the existing
resources
• Top 10 tips for training others
9 out of 10 teachers say they have never
received any specific training on how to
prevent and respond to homophobic bullying
But:
71% of primary school teachers say they feel
some confidence addressing gay issues in the
classroom
Confidence ruler
NOT AT ALL
VERY
How confident do you feel challenging homophobic
language in the classroom?
Confidence ruler
NOT AT ALL
Example questions:
Why are you at 3 and not zero?
What would it take for you to move to 5?
VERY
The Wall
What are the barriers that prevent you from challenging
homophobic language in the classroom?
The Wall
Example questions:
How might you remove these barriers
in the immediate situation?
How else might you remove these barriers ?
Facilitated discussion
• Pick an example from one of the training resources
• Use it to facilitate a discussion
• Can be an extended interaction – e.g. show a clip, discuss
and then show more
• Have prompt questions ready:
– What do you think about what the children and teachers say in
the clip?
– What should we do in our school?
– What could we do in our school?
• Have other relevant resources at hand to refer to
– Including different families guide
– Celebrating Difference, Challenging homophobia in primary
schools DVD
Facilitated discussion - example
(clip of ‘Language’ section of Stonewall
‘Celebrating Difference’ DVD.
For more information contact Stonewall:
education@stonewall.org.uk)
• What do you think about what the children and teachers say in the
clip?
• What should we do in our school?
• What could we do in our school?
Ways to practice – Case studies
• Pick examples from the resources that are
relevant to you
• Use the 3 aims of the public sector equality duty
as a framework to focus the questions. In this
situation:
– How could you eliminate discrimination, harassment
and victimisation in this situation?
– How could you advance equality of opportunity?
– How could you foster good relations between
different groups?
Case study example
Jordan has come to see you after class. He tells you he’s upset
because he keeps hearing friends and other people using the
word ‘gay’ all the time, to mean something bad. He’s tried telling
them to stop but they just laugh and start calling him gay. He tells
you that he has two Mums, that what people are saying at school
is about gay people and it really bothers him. Jordan says that a
few weeks ago he asked another teacher what he should do, but
she told him that people were not saying anything about his
Mums personally and that he should just ignore it.
In this situation:
• How could you eliminate discrimination, harassment and
victimisation?
• How could you advance equality of opportunity?
• How could you foster good relations between different groups?
Ways to practice – role plays
• Pick examples from the resources that are
relevant to you
• Assess levels of confidence
• Can be delivered in different ways:
– Individual – pairs/ trios/ small groups
– Interactive – facilitators or participants: “stop the
action” or “good practice/ bad practice”
• Give clear instructions
• As with case studies, you can use the 3 aims of
the public sector equality duty as a framework to
focus the discussion
Top 10 tips for training others
1. Use the group – alongside you, they are the experts
2. Use selected statistics that will engage your
audience
3. Frame the training positively
4. Use the legislation as a framework and a tool, not
as a weapon
5. Use the resources to inform sessions, not as
complete sessions
Top 10 tips for training others
6. Make it manageable – one well delivered exercise
may be most effective
7. Consider the flow of the session – don’t start with
role play
8. Use exercises like the wall to inform future sessions
such as case studies or role plays
9. Involve others in the planning, and possibly delivery
10. Encourage others to champion change by building
in individual action planning