Equalities training for schools to help end discrimination

A series of new workshops are being planned for schools in Bridgend county borough to help end discrimination.

The project aims to help children and young people to develop critical thinking skills enabling them to question hateful narratives, help them recognise ‘fake news’, consider the causes of hate crime and dissuade them from becoming perpetrators of hate crime in the future.

Run by the charity, Show Racism the Red Card, the project will also help equip school staff with the skills to challenge hate crime and support victims when it occurs in school through separate ‘train the trainer’ style sessions.

Bridgend County Borough Council leader Huw David said: “We know with most incidents of discrimination that there’s a level of under-reporting with most people not feeling confident in coming forward and in some cases, not realising they are a victim of discrimination – this may be particularly the case for children and young people.

“It’s crucial we make sure training is available for schools and provide as many options to run it as possible so we can encourage full participation.

“We know racism is unfortunately a facet of life in all our communities and we want to ensure we provide this level of training and awareness in as many of our schools as possible as we work towards eliminating discrimination in the county borough.

“While the workshops will initially be taking place in a limited number of schools, we will be putting in place further opportunities for more training in the future.”

The project follows a programme delivered in schools across the county borough by Stonewall Cymru which delivered ‘train the trainer’ sessions to school and early help staff on tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. A schools LGBTQ network has since been established to support school staff and pupils.

The Cabinet Committee Equalities discussed an update on the equalities work within schools at a meeting on Monday, August 24.