Schools filled with pride after getting quality mark
Daniel O’Neill
Six Cork schools were awarded for taking extra measures to encourage inclusion and understanding among their 2,700 students across their schools.
These schools received the Belong To LGBTQ+ Quality Mark on 14 March for their work on encouraging wellbeing and inclusion over an 18 month long period. They were presented with the awards at the Royal Marine Hotel, Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin. 350 staff and students attended the event that was hosted by TV presenter James Kavanagh.
St Vincent's Secondary School, St Colman's Community College, Carrigtwohill Community College, Carrigaline Community School, Nano Nagle College Cork and Terence MacSwiney Community College were awarded the quality mark along with 38 other schools and centres. The combined number of students represented 26,000 individuals across the country.
The LGBTQ+ Quality Mark was created by Belong To in 2022 after a School Climate Survey by Columbia University found that 76% of LGBTQ+ youth in Ireland don’t feel safe in post-primary schools. The survey also discovered that including LGBTQ+ topics in the curriculum resulted in 22% of students being more likely to feel like they belong at school, 11% more likely to feel accepted by fellow students and 8% less likely to miss school due to feeling unsafe.
The initiative is to educate students and to make them feel safe and welcome in their schools regardless of sexuality or gender. It includes creating a LGBTQ+ and Allies Club for students, training whole-staff teams on supporting LGBTQ+ students and promoting the representation of LGBTQ+ families and identities in classroom teaching.
Sarah Howard, LGBTQ+ Quality Mark Coordinator at Carrigtwohill Community College said: “Finally getting the quality mark was a great feeling because there's a lot of work that goes into it. Our main drive was always the students because one of our core values here is respect, that everyone is supported and seen. It’s easy for a school to say they support everyone, but the quality mark allows us to demonstrate how we’re doing that.”
She explained how the quality mark benefited their school saying: “We have a Bród society that started in 2022 with 3 or 4 regular students, now we could have over 20 every week. Since people have been educated and become more aware of issues LGBTQ+ people face attitudes have changed. It was always a very supportive school but now people are being more proactive when it comes to issues certain groups may face. Even since 2022 Stand Up Awareness Week has only gotten bigger.”
Moninne Griffith, CEO of Belong To said: “We are proud at Belong To to have been working with this brilliant cohort of Cork schools to make positive change and create safe spaces. Every principal, coordinator, teacher and staff member has shown a huge level of commitment to fostering an inclusive environment in their school and to supporting all students in their care, and I want to congratulate all for the actions that they have taken.”