Derby school chosen to take part in LGBT+ study

Mike Walsh and Marie Wagg worked on the scheme in the school

A secondary school has become the only UK school to take part in a three-year European study about LGBT+ education.

Lees Brook Academy, in Derby, took part in the All Inc project, which it said had been set up to promote inclusive education.

The project used several methods to help schools teach inclusivity, including students' views and analysis of different teaching on LGBT+ issues.

The school said feedback on the scheme had been extremely positive.

The study has been running in Belgium, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands and Spain but is now nearing the end of its three-year Erasmus funding.

It recorded students' views and analysed the differences between how inclusivity and tolerance towards LGBT+ issues are taught.

It then used this data to create tools to help schools.

Mike Walsh, English teacher and literacy coordinator, has been helping to run the project at Lees Brook Academy.

He said: "We have an All Inc Group which has been meeting regularly and brings together students from the LGBT+ community and allies to share their views and build a library of stories which can be shared to promote inclusivity.

"While the project was designed to find out how best to teach inclusivity to students, we also quickly realised the importance of educating staff first, as lessons are only as good as the teacher who delivers them.

"Therefore, we have worked to educate staff as well as pupils and the feedback on that has been extremely positive."

In each country the school was partnered with a university.

Lees Brook Academy was partnered with the University of Derby, which it said had helped it with support and analysis.