Secondary Overview

LGBT Inclusive Education refers to including themes related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people across the school curriculum. It applies across all ages and stages, from early years to senior phase.

It is a national expectation that all teachers in Scotland will engage with the National Approach to LGBT Inclusive Education. This means completing the national CPD and including the LGBT Learning Themes in ordinary teaching and learning.

In secondary schools, LGBT Inclusive Education will typically build upon the learning already established during primary. Themes will be included across all curricular areas in a meaningful and natural way that is relevant to subject learning and suitable for the age and stage of learners. This may include:

reading texts by LGBT authors or with LGBT themes during English
learning relevant vocabulary in Modern Languages
learning more about important and relevant LGBT figures to enchance learning in Maths, Science, Technologies, PE, and more
studying LGBT history and rights in Social Subjects and RME
learning from the work of LGBT artists, musicians, actors and writers in Expressive Arts
lessons around prejudice, anti-bullying and discrimination in Health and Wellbeing

We have a variety of services and resources which can help teachers to get started with LGBT Inclusive Education in the classroom.

Our school services

With our expertise and experience working in schools across Scotland, we have identified this pathway as the most effective way to achieve meaningful impact.

Key staff complete Stage 1 of national CPD
Secondary school assemblies
All staff complete Stage 1 of national CPD
All staff complete Stage 2 of national CPD
School action plan developed
Secondary learner workshops
Assemblies or workshop for new year groups

You can download the full recommended pathway here.

Our school services are designed to address prejudice and improve outcomes for all learners. Our data shows that our assemblies and workshops have strong outcomes, with 9 out of 10 learners saying they had a better understanding of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic prejudice and bullying. Visit Our Impact for the current data from our services.

We require key staff (including pastoral care, those facilitating the sessions, and any other staff school identified) to have completed at least Stage 1 of the national CPD before we deliver any learner assemblies or workshops as we have found they are most impactful when staff are engaging with the national CPD and implementation of LGBT Inclusive Education.

Assemblies

We offer year group assemblies for S1 to S6. These focus on addressing the use of prejudice-based language such as “that’s so gay” and other slurs about LGBT people which are still commonly used by learners at school. They also explore the impact of bullying and how young people can play a part in stopping this. Learners will hear the first hand stories and experiences of speakers.

For schools who are beginning the implementation of LGBT Inclusive Education, assemblies are recommended before workshops.

To book year group assemblies and for more information, visit Assemblies.

Workshops

Our workshop ‘Understanding Prejudice’ leads learners through an investigation of prejudice. It focuses on homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, but demonstrates that prejudice can affect many other groups of people. We also offer a version of Understanding Prejudice for learners with ASN who are accommodated outwith the mainstream learning environment.

Workshops are recommended for schools who are already engaging with LGBT Inclusive Education. If schools wish to have both assemblies and workshops, assemblies would be delivered first.

To book our workshops and for more information, visit Secondary Workshops.

Our resources

We produce curriculum materials for teachers delivering LGBT Inclusive Education that are ready to use and can also be easily adapted for the needs of learners. These resources also serve as examples of how LGBT Inclusive Education can look in different curricular areas, ages and stages for teachers who want to produce their own classroom materials.

92% of teachers who completed the CPD said they would use our LGBT Inclusive Education resources. Visit our Secondary Resources page to view and download all of our available resources.

View Secondary Resources

Secondary teachers

For further information about the expectations for secondary teachers, the national CPD and the LGBT Inclusive Education Implementation and Evaluation Toolkit, visit Teachers.

lgbteducation.scot

We manage lgbteducation.scot, the national platform for LGBT Inclusive Education on behalf of the Scottish Government. It hosts all quality approved resources, the national ‘Delivering LGBT Inclusive Education’ CPD, the LGBT Inclusive Education Implementation and Evaluation Toolkit and all current national guidance for this policy area.