Just Like Us’ Pride Groups resource shortlisted for TeachCo Awards for positive impact on pupil wellbeing

Just Like Us has been shortlisted for a Teach Secondary Award, recognising the positive role its Pride Groups programme plays in improving the lives of LGBT+ young people in school.

The TeachCo Awards – combining the Teach Secondary, Teach Primary and Teach Early Years Awards – celebrate the very best teaching resources across the education sector.

The shortlisted school resource is a creative writing activity produced by the charity in collaboration with YA and LGBT+ author Anna Zoe Quirke, as part of its Pride Groups programme. It has been shortlisted for the Teach Secondary Health and Wellbeing award.

As part of the activity, LGBT+ and ally pupils in Pride Groups from secondary schools across the UK entered a creative writing competition on the theme of how they practice self-care.

The winner was selected by Quirke themself, who then delivered an exclusive Q&A for the pupils on their career as an author, bringing vital representation into classrooms and showing LGBT+ young people that they can thrive as adults, achieving success without hiding who they are.

The resource was created for Just Like Us’ Pride Groups programme, a nationwide network of clubs for LGBT+ pupils and allies, now running in one in four UK secondary schools.

Pride Groups are a nationwide network of clubs for LGBT+ and ally pupils, that Just Like Us now supports teachers to run in one in four UK secondary schools. One school pupil said: “[Having a Pride Group] lifted my spirits when I was in a dark time and gave me a sense of community.”

“I have a reason to come to school on Thursdays now”, another pupil said.

96% of teachers say that Just Like Us’ Pride Groups programme has improved young people’s wellbeing.

Just Like Us’ research has also shown that LGBT+ young people from school and home environments that are not inclusive are less likely to feel confident they will have a career they enjoy, as well as four times more likely to feel ashamed of being LGBT+.

Laura Mackay, Chief Executive of Just Like Us, the LGBT+ young people’s charity, said: “We are immensely proud that our Pride Groups resources have been shortlisted for a Teach Secondary award in the Health and Wellbeing category. This affirms what the young people we work with tell us every day: LGBT+ inclusive education is vital for pupils’ wellbeing and ability to fully participate in education.

“Growing up LGBT+ is still unacceptably tough, with LGBT+ school pupils twice as likely to be bullied as their peers, and more than half feeling isolated every day. But safe spaces like our Pride Groups can make a huge difference, improving pupil wellbeing, creating a sense of belonging, increasing school attendance, and showing young people that who they are is something to be celebrated.”

Author Anna Zoe Quirke said: “I was so thrilled to be told that Little Tiger and Just Like Us were creating Pride Group resources based on my book, Sad Girl Hours. As an educator who has used plenty of Just Like Us’ resources in the past, it was such an honour to know that students across the country would be creating work based on one of my stories. I hugely enjoyed looking through all of the wonderfully creative work all of the different schools contributed and answering their students’ insightful questions!

“I’ve seen first hand the impact Pride Groups have, creating spaces for young people who may not feel safe enough elsewhere to fully express and articulate who they are, or even to begin to figure out who they may be among a group of supportive peers, as well as the impact that compassionate, engaging resources aimed at LGBTQ+ kids can have both for those students who identify as queer and/or trans and for deepening understandings for entire student bodies, and so I’m very glad that Just Like Us exists.

“Just Like Us was formed the year I left high school and I know that my experiences in education as a closeted queer person would have been very different had staff at my school had access to the resources that I now have today through organisations like Just Like Us. I’m incredibly proud to have been featured in one of their resources and hope that the charity continues to get the recognition they deserve for their invaluable work.”