InsideOUT Kōaro are proud to celebrate Schools’ Pride Week - a nationwide rainbow pride campaign in schools, running June 13-17 2022. Schools’ Pride Week is a celebratory week of events and activities to help foster a sense of belonging for rainbow young people within their schools and communities.

With over 280 participating education organisations that represent every region of Aotearoa, the primary aim of the campaign is to help reduce the experiences of bullying and distress for Aotearoa’s rainbow rangatahi and help them to feel included and valued within education facilities.

The importance of providing inclusive schools for rainbow students has been highlighted in the media this week after students at Bethlehem College became victim to death threats and harassment for raising awareness of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying as they took part in the Day of Silence, an event that builds up to Pride Week.

Additionally, new Youth’19 data released this month showed substantially higher rates of significant depressive symptoms and self-harm occurring amongst rainbow young people. The study found between 10-16% of secondary school students in Aotearoa identified with a sexual or gender minority, or were questioning their identity.

Managing Director of InsideOUT Tabby Besley says “Young people across Aotearoa are sharing pride in who they are, and it is time for schools to celebrate with them. It makes all the difference to rainbow rangatahi when they have teachers and schools that show visible support for who they are, whether that’s in the classroom, in school policies, or during Pride Week.

We are encouraged by the diverse range of schools taking part this year and hope further schools will be inspired to create environments where their rainbow rangatahi are celebrated, not just for one week, but all year round.”

The goals of Schools’ Pride Week are to:

• Celebrate rainbow staff and students in school communities, increasing a sense of belonging
• Support schools to facilitate activities and pride celebrations in their school, through the sharing of resources and information
• Create opportunities for schools to incorporate rainbow issues into school subjects, and normalise rainbow identities across the curriculum.

Schools Pride Week also coincides with Out on the Shelves, an opportunity for school and community libraries to build and promote their rainbow collections, celebrate rainbow stories and help connect rainbow young people with these stories and with each other.
 

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