At Newburgh we celebrate that our children come from different families. We know that like many other schools in the UK, some children have a mum and a dad, some children live with one parent, some live with their grandparents and some children have two mums or two dads.
LGBTQ+ stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer. The ‘plus’ represents other sexual orientations and gender identities.
It is important to us at Newburgh that we represent different families in our community as we know that children who see their families reflected in class and around the school will grow up to be confident, respectful and successful citizens.
Aside from our moral duty, it is also our statutory duty to teach children about different families and relationships therefore all primary schools in England are expected to teach Relationships Education. In teaching Relationships Education, we ensure that the needs of all pupils are appropriately met, and that all pupils understand the importance of equity and respect. We ensure that all of our teaching is sensitive and ago appropriate in approach and content.
In order to prepare children for the diverse society they live in and to prevent bullying and discrimination, it is important to talk about difference in general and different families in particular.
At Newburgh, the children learn about and celebrate different family structures through our PSHE scheme of work, Jigsaw. In addition, our school library and class book corners are stocked with books that represent different family structures and some of the texts we use within our lessons focus on diverse characters, families and authors from the LGBTQ+ community. All children are encouraged to talk about their own and each other’s families and the school does not tolerate any homophobic, biphobic, transphobic language.
