Well this month I am going to be terribly ambitious and attempt to cover two completely unrelated subjects - one that I visited a year ago "Learning outside the Classroom" (following a rather exciting day out of the office at Minstead Study Centre & Tile Barn Outdoor Centre), and the other in response to a recent Schools' Anti-Bullying Conference surrounding the emotive subject of "Homophobic Bullying".

Now I wouldn't even dream of trying to link the two - so perhaps I should explain the choice of subject matter, and perhaps why I feel so strongly about homophobic bullying.

Now let's just take yesterday as an example.   Firstly I had to remove a post-it sticky note from the back of a sixteen year old boy at Youth Club with "Im Gay" (no apostrophe) scribbled across it, and when I got home I found that I had been sent a disgusting homophobic joke about the former Boyzone member Stephen Gately.  And that was just one day!  In addition, over the past few years or so I have heard the terrible recollections from my gay friends about their school experiences and teenage years with varying degrees of horror.  So let me just start off by blinding you with a few facts and figures about homophobic bullying:

Almost two thirds (65 per cent) of young lesbian, gay and bisexual people experience homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools.

Seventy five per cent of young gay people in faith schools experience homophobic bullying and are less likely than pupils in other schools to report it.

Of those who have been bullied, 92 per cent have experienced verbal homophobic bullying, 41 per cent physical bullying and 17 per cent death threats (Stonewall, The School Report 2007).

Now from where I am sitting in my cosy office surrounded by anti-bullying posters, that last quote is incredibly scary.   So let me repeat it.

If you are gay, lesbian or bisexual you are likely to experience a 92% chance of being verbally bullied, a 41% chance of being physically bullied and an incredibly startling 17% chance of receiving a death threat.  Good Grief!   Now cover me in glitter and call me a Christmas decoration, but I was under the impression that we were in the 21st century, where communication across the globe could be shared in the matter of seconds, where pictures of my driveway are transmitted from space, and where Civil Partnerships and single sex adoptions are legal.  Now can you understand why I selected Homophobic Bullying as one of my topics for this month?  

I shall continue with my diatribe:

In addition to 'direct' bullying, 95 per cent of secondary school teachers and three quarters of primary school teachers report hearing the phrases ‘you’re so gay’ or ‘that’s so gay’ in their schools. Eight in ten secondary school teachers and two in five primary school teachers report hearing other insulting homophobic remarks such as ‘poof’, ‘dyke’, ‘queer’ and ‘faggot’.

So it is quite acceptable to make comments about someone's sexuality, but not about their ethnic background, disability or religious beliefs?   That is simply astounding!  Luckily Ed Balls (MP) is on my side with the view that homophobic insults should be taken far more seriously when he stated...

"Homophobic insults should be viewed as seriously as racism.

We must uphold every child's basic right to learn in a safe and secure environment, free from bullying."

So to put this into better context, let's look at a real case study.  Madrainbowgirl, as she calls herself on YouTube, was 12 years old when she admitted to a close friend she was gay. The news spread around her school sparking three years of bullying, which included verbal taunts, social isolation, being pushed downstairs and spat on.  “The bullying was pretty intensive. I had the usual name calling going down the corridor… I had things thrown at me,” she says. “It really tortured me. I can’t count how many lessons I’ve spent sitting on my own because of it."  She found teachers unwilling to step in and help, possibly because they were scared, and she herself became too scared to ask for help. “In my experience, the teachers really didn’t want to know. They were too scared to intervene. If it was something on the grounds of race or religion then they would generally step in but I found that in this circumstance they weren’t prepared to.”

“I think there should be more education in high schools about homophobia, to try and change people’s attitudes,” she says. “We seem to think there are more liberal views but in the narrow minds of some schoolchildren it’s not happening.”  Remarkably, Madrainbowgirl says all this in a personal on-camera sharing of her experience which you can view below:

Schools are ideally placed to teach pupils about sexual orientation and how to challenge homophobia, as they make a significant contribution to the development of values and attitudes in young children that are likely to be resistant to change in adulthood.  There have been positive moves in this area, with the government recently launching guidelines, drawn up by Stonewall and Education Action Challenging Homophobia (EACH), to help tackle homophobia in schools. This document (amongst other school-based resources) can be downloaded at the web site below:
 

www.Stonewall.org.uk (schools)

The detailed guidelines explain what homophobic bullying is, how to recognise it, offer advice on how to respond to it and encourages schools to implement prevention measures –  for example, ensuring that homophobic bullying is specifically included in a school’s anti-bullying policy and that homophobia is dealt with in a wider school context. Much of what’s needed, and which is pointed out in the guidelines, is the need to create a culture that’s generally more inclusive and accepting of everyone. That means challenging homophobic language, promoting gay role models, talking about different relationships in sex education classes and making it safe and okay to be an openly gay teacher

In the first instance, schools need to insure that homophobic bullying is recognised in their anti-bullying policies. Many schools, state and public, have drawn up anti-bullying policies often taking wording from guidance such as that provided by Stonewall (which is available to schools via the web and their local authorities). Some schools have adopted more progressive anti-bullying measures; for example, a number of London schools have been working with 'Beat Bullying' to set up bully prevention workshops and peer mentoring schemes.

“Peer mentoring has been proven to reduce bullying by 43 per cent, the key is listening to young people and giving them the tools to tackle the problem themselves. They know the solutions; they just need a push and the support to implement them.”

Richard Piggin at Beat Bullying

Sadly the September 2007 publication 'Safe to Learn: Embedding Anti-Bullying Work in Schools - Preventing and Responding to Homophobic bullying in schools' produced by Stonewall and EACH was unavailable to order when I lasted checked, but you can still download a copy of this guidance document in the meantime at: http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=DCSF-00668-2007&

The 2004 Department of Health document 'Stand Up For Us: Challenging Homophobia in Schools' can still be downloaded from: http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=challenge-homophobia&

Kidscape also has a fabulous page of useful links about homophobic bullying for professionals at: http://www.kidscape.org.uk/professionals/homophobicbullying.shtml

Don't forget that national anti-bullying week runs from 16 - 20th November with the theme of cyber-bullying; but intrinsically linked to homophobic bullying as this is an often used route for spreading malicious gossip via social networking sites.  Order your blue bands to sell at your school this year by clicking the picture below to take you directly to the Beat Bullying web site. Resources to support school assemblies and group discussion for all year goups can be downloaded from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) at:

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers/

If you would like a poster promoting national anti-bullying week 2009 I have a stock at my office, and I am happy to deliver one on request to display at your school.

So from homophobia and 'cyber-bullying' week, I have now set myself the challenge of stepping out of the school environment into the great outdoors - and what a wonderful leveller the natural environment can be. Who gives a thought to 'slinging verbal mud' when plunging your hands into the real thing is so much more rewarding?

Outdoor education can be simply defined as experiential learning in, for, or about the outdoors. The term ‘outdoor education’, however, is used quite broadly to refer to a range of organised activities which take place in a variety of ways in predominantly outdoor environments.  If you consider for a moment (and here comes my link to bullying you have been waiting for) participants are at their "rawest" level when outdoors because they are "stripped" of many of the conveniences of modern life. Children and young people can become more aware that they are part of a greater ecosystem and are not as bound by social customs and norms; in essence children (and adults) can be true to themselves and more able to see others as people regardless of race, class, religion and sex.

Outdoor education also helps instil the basic elements of teamwork because participants often need to work together and rely on others. For many people a high ropes course or a challenging outdoor activity such as climbing to the top of Ben Nevis or skinning a rabbit may stretch their comfort zone and cause them to challenge themselves physically and mentally.  Now we are incredibly lucky here in Hampshire.  Not only do we have some exceptionally high quality outdoor learning centres, we have a large county that has an abundance of natural beauty - all within a short driving distance.  Or walking distance in some cases.  You just have to think of the New Forest wearing its autumn colours at this time of year and the estuaries around Southampton & Portsmouth Harbour to see what is on offer to expand this outdoor offer.  Even early years settings can utilise the free learning resources offered by mother nature by sending children out to explore dirty puddles and gooey mud.  What three year old child would not be enchanted by the sound and sensations created sticky mud?  And luckily skin not only comes in lots of different colours....it is also waterproof and washable!

As mentioned at the beginning of this blog were were fortunate to spend a day in the New Forest exploring the range of environmental and challenge and adventure training on offer to our schools and youth groups through Hampshire's Outdoor Education, PE and Sport Service.  I could go into a huge list of the activities and centres across the county but you can find a comprehensive list at:

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/education/outdoor-education.htm

May I please say a huge thank you to the fantastic team at both Minstead Study Centre and Tile Barn for organising our coordinators' outdoor adventure day.  The highlight of my day was storytelling/clay modelling around the camp fire ... and the gorgeous blackberry cake.  I also took away some excellent team-building games for youth club.  Sadly however, I was not a huge lot of help preventing my teammates getting blown up on the minefield; for a group of intelligent professionals, we must have looked quite comical trying to work out how to cross with only two planks of wood.   As mentioned on the day, it may be worthwhile taking a look at Martin Smith, Executive of the Outdoor Education Advisors' Panel (OEAP) article: "Learning outside the classroom – Making it happen" to see the rationale behind outdoor learning.  Click below to view the article.

Learning Outside the Classroom - Making it Happen

I try to include copies of the very useful Out There Magazine (pictured left) back on my resources page as regularly as possible, but to go directly to the latest autumn 2009 edition please click below:

Out There Autumn 2009 (pdf)

Concern about young people becoming distanced from nature has increased in recent years, with many unable to connect the food they see in supermarkets with the land that produces it.  This, combined with a general lack of interest in food and what constitutes a healthy diet, means many pupils struggle to understand the interdependence between urban and rural environments, and the countryside with the wildlife and people it sustains.

Growing Schools is a government funded programme tasked to address this issue.  It aims to encourage, support and inspire all schools to use the outdoor classroom, both with and beyond the school grounds, as a context for learning across the curriculum. It focuses in particular on food, farming and the countryside, on ensuring pupils are given first hand experience of the natural world around them and that outdoor learning activities are integrated into every day teaching practices. Click the banner below to browse the site:

There is an interesting area on the Channel 4 site called Land Share.  It lists people who are either looking for some land to cultivate for vegetable growing (and keeping chickens) or those willing to help voluntarily with gardens or allotments.   Also useful link for local organisations (including schools and Children's Centres) looking for individuals to help run environmental projects for example, is the volunteering newsletter issued by Fareham Community Action.  If you wish to include an advert for a volunteer at your setting please use the contact number on the newsletter.  You can get an up-to-date newsletter by either calling into the office on the corner of Trinity Street/West Street or taking a visit to the Community Action Fareham web site at: http://www.farehamaction.org.uk/.  For an example of the latest September 2009 edition please click below: 

Fareham Volunteering Opportunities September 2009 (pdf)

And before I finish this month I shall also give another quick mention again to Groundwork Solent who are looking for ways to link with our schools and community groups.  Take a visit to their web site to see some of their work with children and young people across the area. 

My final link for you this month is to OOSA.  Now before you start thinking I've gone back to describing festering wounds from my past nursing years, please let me explain that the Out of School Alliance (OOSA) provides information and support to individuals and organisations setting up and running out of school clubs.  I thought this may be useful if you are thinking of starting up a new club in the area (including gardening clubs), or wish to receive some of the membership benefits such as club insurance and downloadable policy documents.  Just out of interest, the OOSA site also has a very useful, brief guide to the new Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) guidelines.

I shall bid you farewell for this month with a little thought - despite all of these wonderful sites encouraging us to get children into to the great outdoors and explore their natural environment, unfortunately down to the parents to make sure they dress their littl'uns appropriately!