New LGBTQ+ inclusive education curricula are to be integrated into UK schools over the course of the next academic year. Over the next two weeks, many students will be returning to school for the first time since the coronavirus outbreak. School boards will have until next summer to incorporate the new curriculum requirements into teaching practises. New teaching topics include consent, pornography and LGBTQ+ rights.
The new regulations follow those in 2019 that introduced mental health and online safety into the national curriculum with the aim to ensure schooling discusses issues that affect children in the 21st century.
LGBTQ+ organisation Stonewall has campaigned for a more inclusive education system for a decade now. Mo Wiltshire of Stonewall told i News the changes to UK education will be ‘life changing’. The 2017 Stonewall school report found nearly half of LGBTQ+ pupils experience bullying at school; Mo suggested that this issue will be alleviated as ‘young people will be attending schools that accept LGBTQ+ people’. Schools will also be expected to improve support networks for LGBTQ+ students.
In 2019 it was confirmed that LGBTQ+ inclusive education would become compulsory, however this is the first academic year where the new regulations will be put into effect.
