Inclusive environments for LGBTQI students, staff and families
The ACT Safe and Inclusive Schools Initiative provides assistance to schools to develop and maintain safe and inclusive environments for all students regardless of their gender presentation/identity, intersex status or sexual orientation.
The Initiative enables schools and education programs in the ACT to seek assistance to develop their practice in areas such as supporting individual student need and welcoming and celebrating community and family diversity. The Initiative also supports schools to build respectful school cultures where prejudice, discrimination harassment and violence on the basis of gender presentation/identity, intersex status or sexual orientation is unacceptable.
Our goal
We want everyone to be able to be themselves at school and to feel safe and welcomed for who they are.
Schools can choose from a range of supports and strategies that best meet the needs of their school community. This includes:
Professional learning for school staff
Guidance on identifying and accessing high quality curriculum resources
Advice about supporting individual students and their parents/carers within the school environment
Facilitation of community links and professional networks
Quick facts
Supportive and inclusive schools can make significant and positive differences to young people’s wellbeing outcomes.
Children and young people who don’t feel safe at school cannot learn effectively.
Same sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse people report school as a significant site where they experience prejudice, discrimination, harassment and violence.
The Safe and Inclusive Schools Initiative is different to the former Safe Schools Coalition program.
The Safe and Inclusive Schools Initiative builds the capacity of the school to be an inclusive environment for LGBTQI students, staff and families. It is not a curriculum on sexuality, gender and relationships education.
The Initiative is not mandatory and schools do not need to become members. Schools simply access the support they need, if and when they need it.
The Initiative does not include subjects taught to students in classrooms, it builds the capacity of teachers and school staff to increase their knowledge and skills.
Contact
For more information visit the Initiative’s website at http://www.saisact.info or give SHFPACT a call on 62473077 or send them an email at saisact@shfpact.org.au.
Everyone Everyday Program and Inclusion
The national award winning Everyone Everyday program is a social and emotional learning program that targets mainstream primary schools, and focuses on the concept of ‘inclusion’. It is based on the premise that ‘inclusion’ needs to be explicitly taught if we are to move from a situation in which children
with complex needs and challenging behaviour including disability are simply present in mainstream schools, to one in which they are welcomed, valued and enjoy full membership of the school community.
The program is supported by a comprehensive professional learning program that is managed through a collaboration of the ACT Education Directorate, Catholic Education, and the ACT Association of Independent Schools after extensive consultation with the Canberra community and the education sector.
Everyone Everyday Program Website
Friendly Schools Plus anti-bullying initiative
Friendly Schools Plus is the first anti-bullying initiative for schools developed through extensive research with Australian children and adolescents. It is recognised nationally and internationally as a comprehensive, evidence-based framework that can reduce bullying behaviour. The Friendly Schools Plus program has been designed to align with both the Australian Curriculum and the National Safe Schools Framework.