LGBT inclusive education: guidance

The National Approach to LGBT Inclusive Education

LGBT inclusive education should be integrated within teaching and learning through the broad general education to the Senior Phase, with an emphasis on meaningful, factual and contextually relevant learning across curriculum areas and subjects. Learning content should be differentiated for the age and stage of learners. These principles for effective practice are the core of the national approach to LGBT Inclusive Education.

Through consultation and engagement with learners and educators, the LGBTI Inclusive Education Working Group identified key thematic areas of learning and teaching related to LGBT inclusive education to support integration across curriculum areas and subjects. These thematic areas formed the basis for development work carried out by members of the LGBT Inclusive Education Implementation Group. These themes, set out below, are flexible and complement Curriculum for Excellence by encouraging educators to use their professional judgement as to how and where the Learning Themes are best addressed in learning and teaching, and at what stages.

The seven LGBT Inclusive Education Learning Themes are:

• Understanding the Equality Act 2010, the UNCRC and human rights;
• Identifying prejudice, discrimination, and bullying (including homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia);
• Recognising and challenging gender stereotypes;
• Diverse families, including LGBT parents and siblings;
• Celebrating diversity and difference;
• History of LGBT equality movements; and,
• LGBT past and present figures and role models.

The Learning Themes should be included across the school curriculum, in line with Curriculum for Excellence. Comprehensive inclusion of the seven Learning Themes in learning and teaching across the curriculum is a primary marker of how schools can measure their progress in implementing LGBT inclusive education.

Responding to prejudice-based behaviours

It is imperative all schools effectively respond to prejudice-based behaviours. To help schools to feel confident in this area, there is guidance available in Addressing Inclusion: Effectively Challenging Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia. This complements Respect for All: national approach to anti-bullying for Scotland’s children and young people which was updated in November 2024 and now includes guidance on recording and monitoring bullying incidents in schools.

Schools should communicate their expectations of behaviour and how they will manage any situations which arise, including when incidents are linked to prejudice..

The Equality Act 2010 protects individuals with protected characteristics from discrimination, victimisation and harassment and supports progress on equality. Schools and education authorities should ensure that policies aimed at creating inclusive environments, including preventing or responding to bullying or other prejudice-based behaviours, meet these legal obligations. See Appendix 1 for further information.

The way in which a school responds to homophobic, biphobic or transphobic incidents plays an important role in reinforcing a culture where the whole school community understands that such behaviour is unacceptable and helps to prevent further escalation. For example, the normalisation of derogatory and pejorative language use or slurs about a social group, and the perpetuation of harmful social or cultural stereotypes or myths, if unaddressed, can create a culture that can lead to prejudice-based behaviours including bullying.

It is important to note that not all incidents where prejudice-based behaviour occurs will be bullying incidents. The nature of certain behaviour that could be perceived as, or reported as bullying may include behaviour that is criminal in nature, such as a hate crime. Schools should contact Police Scotland if they think a crime has taken place.

Preventing and responding to prejudice-based behaviour will require a line of enquiry that directly addresses the prejudice(s) that has motivated the behaviour. This will include proactively challenging the root causes of different forms of prejudice - such as harmful stereotyping, stigma, negative perceptions, and ‘othering’ - through the Four Contexts for Learning. Further information can be found in Respect for All.

Recording and monitoring prejudice-based incidents

Consultation with LGBT learners found they often do not feel confident in reporting homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying to their school. They believe adults will not understand what is happening or take it seriously; that sharing their experiences could make them worse; or they are afraid others will find out about their identity.

It is essential that children, young people and family members feel empowered to report allegations of bullying and other prejudice-based behaviours. Their confidence to raise concerns will be informed by a number of factors including their understanding of the process for reporting, the transparency and rigour of the process for investigating allegations and confidence in the actions that will be taken in response.

There should be clear information within a school or organisation’s anti-bullying policy of the mechanisms through which allegations of bullying should be reported. Given some children, young people and families may be concerned about the potential for escalation of behaviour if they are found to have reported behaviour, consideration should be given to whether it would be appropriate to have mechanisms for anonymised reporting, alongside other reporting mechanisms.

Schools and organisations should take particular care in the recording of incidents relating to prejudice and structural inequalities. The reporting of ‘bullying’ can lead to the under-reporting of incidents such as homophobia and biphobia taking place in education. The SEEMiS system enables incidents relating to protected characteristics to be recorded distinct from bullying incidents. This can be selected if the incident was motivated by, or was perceived to be motivated by, homophobia, biphobia or transphobia by any party, including witnesses or school staff.

Support for staff who experience prejudice, discrimination or bullying

All staff are entitled to the protection provided by the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which places employers under a duty to ensure, as far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of employees at work. This duty includes protecting employees from violent incidents and reducing the risks of such incidents occurring. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must assess risks to employees and make arrangements for their health and safety by effective planning, organisation, control, monitoring and review. It is important that individual employees are consulted as part of the risk assessment process and that Trade Union Safety Representatives are consulted on risk assessment processes, procedures and findings.

Local authorities and schools should ensure all staff have access to information about local wellbeing policies and other relevant support services; outline the different ways staff can report an incident; encourage staff to report any issues and support them appropriately if they do; monitor incidents and implement appropriate measures to ensure dignity and safety at work and ensure that all prejudice-based attitudes are always challenged.

The National Platform

To support schools with LGBT Inclusive Education, the Scottish Government launched lgbteducation.scot - a central platform developed in collaboration with educators, which contains information relevant to the national approach to LGBT Inclusive Education. All resources and materials hosted on the platform including those listed below are available free of charge to schools, education settings and early learning and childcare providers.

The platform hosts the LGBT Inclusive Education Implementation and Evaluation Toolkit. This resource has been designed to support schools with all the necessary tools to facilitate effective implementation of LGBT inclusive education.

A national professional learning course is available to schools, to support staff to gain the knowledge and information they need in this area. Stage 1 is an E-Learning module that can be accessed through lgbteducation.scot at any time. Stage 2 is a face-to-face training input which encourages collegiate staff planning, and is delivered locally. This can be booked upon completion of Stage 1 by staff. All staff in local authority run schools and early learning and childcare providers in Scotland are asked to complete this professional learning course.

Exemplar teaching and learning materials are also available on the national platform and are updated in cycles. School staff can also access guidance on pastoral care, responding to bullying and prejudice, and information for parents, carers, and families.