Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

135. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the action she is taking to ensure that schools have an atmosphere which is welcoming to LGBTQ+ students. [5213/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department is fully committed to creating safe and supportive environments in all schools, fostering an atmosphere that is welcoming and inclusive for every student, including LGBTQ+ students, to supports all students to achieve their full potential.

My Department is providing a broad range of resources to support schools to develop positive whole-school approaches. It has provided funding towards the annual BelongTo Stand Up Awareness Campaign since 2013. The objective is to prevent and tackle homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools, increase respect for diversity and LGBTQ+ identities and reduce the potential for mental health difficulties among LGBT students.

“Being LGBT in School – A Resource for Post-Primary Schools to Prevent Homophobic and Transphobic Bullying and Support LGBT Students”, developed with the support of my Department, provides guidance in relation to supporting LGBT students in schools. It is intended to assist schools in addressing homophobic bullying and to support LGBT students and is available on www.gov.ie It includes information on key roles in the school context, including that of the Principal/School Leader, Teachers/Class Teacher and that of the Guidance Counsellor.

In December last, Cineáltas: Action Plan on Bullying was published by my Department setting out 61 actions to ensure that schools are places where every single student feels welcome, valued and understood. These include the commitments by my Department to review and update the resource ‘Being LGBT in School’ and to continue to support the StandUp Awareness Campaign.

The Department’s Wellbeing Policy Statement and Framework for Practice (2019) acknowledges that schools provide opportunities to develop friendships and to respectfully encounter diversity and access support structures. The policy promotes the provision of a whole-school approach to supporting wellbeing, an approach that has been found internationally to produce a wide range of educational and social benefits for individual children and young people, including increased inclusion, greater social cohesion, increased social capital and improvements to mental health.

To support schools in this work the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) provides training to schools to ensure that the promotion of wellbeing is at the core of the ethos of every school.

The National Educational Psychological Service (NEPS) has also developed training for school staff on the promotion of wellbeing and resilience in schools which includes upskilling school staff on the use and implementation of therapeutically-informed approaches in schools,

The Programme for Government commits that ‘this Government will develop inclusive and age appropriate curricula for Relationships and Sexuality Education (RSE) and Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE) across primary and post-primary schools, including an inclusive programme on LGBTI+ relationships’. Work to implement this commitment is ongoing, building on a major review of RSE in schools, completed in 2019 by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA). A draft revised Junior Cycle specification was published for consultation in July of last year running until October. The report from this consultation, which was published last month and is available on the NCCA website at ncca.ie/media/5914/report-on-the-consultation-on-the-draft-junior-cycle-sphe-curriculum.pdf, will inform the NCCA’s finalisation of the Junior Cycle specification. The aim is that this will be implemented in schools in September of this year.

A background paper for development of Senior Cycle SPHE was published for consultation in October last, and will inform development of a new specification to be ready for implementation in schools in September 2024.

Finally, under the Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post Primary Schools 2017, as part of its work, the Inspectorate in my Department monitors and report on compliance by schools with the 2017 Procedures. The Inspectorate’s monitoring work in this regard is one of a range of quality assurance and oversight measures to ensure that schools and their staff are operating in compliance with the Children First Act 2015.