Wyvern Academy, part of Consilium Academies, has marked LGBT+ History Month with a visit from local MP, Peter Gibson who is a member of the LGBT+ community. 

 LGBT+ History Month runs for the whole of February and was first celebrated in 2005.  The overall aim of LGBT+ History month is to promote equality and diversity for the benefit of the public.  This is done by increasing the visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (“LGBT+”) people, their history, lives and their experiences in the curriculum and culture of educational and other institutions, and the wider community. 

The school will be launching an activity where each tutor group will research an LGBT+ figure from history and then create posters about them to be displayed in their classroom.  This is an idea that QSA, the schools LGBTQ Club came up with and will lead on.  The QSA group have already designed a poster about Alan Turing, a gay mathematician who worked at Bletchley Park and helped crack the Enigma code in WW2.

Wyvern also welcomed constituency MP, Peter Gibson to the school to speak with students about the importance of LGBT+ History Month.  Mr Gibson has been the MP for Darlington since 2019 and entered into a civil partnership with his partner in 2008.  He spoke to students about what it is like to be an MP, about the conversion therapy bill, Section 28 and the transgender guidance for schools.

Surveys have shown that pupils in schools with strong positive messaging about being LGBT+ have drastically improved wellbeing and feel safer – regardless of whether they are LGBT+ or not.

Mr Scott Parker Head of School,  at Wyvern Academy said:

“At Wyvern Academy we pride ourselves on our inclusivity and as such I was delighted by the suggestion from the QSA Club to research and design posters on key historical LGBT+ figures.  

It’s absolutely right that schools should be raising awareness and advancing education on matters affecting the LGBT+ community and I want to say a big thank you to Peter Gibson MP for taking the time to come and speak to some of our students about this.”