School Diversity Week 2023 dates announced

School Diversity Week 2023 will take place 26-30 June in primary and secondary schools across the UK.

School staff can sign up now to take part.

The event is a UK-wide celebration of LGBT+ equality in education. It is organised by Just Like Us, the LGBT+ young people’s charity, which provides free resources to schools.

As part of School Diversity Week 2023, Rainbow Friday will take place on Friday 30 June. It is a non-uniform day where staff and pupils can wear rainbow clothes or colours of the Pride progress flag to fundraise for Just Like Us.

In 2022, thousands of schools celebrated, including a record number of primary schools. They took part by using Just Like Us’ lesson plans, running assemblies, having discussions in form time or circle time, and fundraising on Rainbow Friday.

Many primary schools also joined a KS2 writing workshop run by Just Like Us, with LGBT+ children’s author Benjamin Dean.

School Diversity Week 2023: Take part

Just Like Us invites all primary schools, secondary schools and sixth forms in the UK to take part. It is completely free and helps tackle anti-LGBT+ bullying.

By signing up to take part, school staff can get access to free educational resources.

The free resources include LGBT+ inclusive lesson plans, posters, form time activities, assembly slides, videos and more.

Why celebrate School Diversity Week 2023?

Independent research has found a link between LGBT+ inclusive education and pupils having better mental health.

The research also found that 42% of LGBT+ school pupils have been bullied, which is double the number of non-LGBT+ pupils. They are also twice as likely to have depression and be lonely than their peers.

A recent independent survey of 1,001 UK parents also found that 82% of parents believe it’s ‘important’ for children to ‘learn that different types of families exist (e.g. LGBT+ families, such as gay parents)’.