The workshops were held in February as part of the ‘Schools Champions’ programme Sophie undertook with Stonewall, a UK charity that works to achieve equality and justice for homosexual and bisexual people.
As part of the ‘Schools Champions’ programme, 18-year-old Sophie attended a training session in London last October, after being told about Stonewall by her teacher Neil Dickson. Sir Ian McKellen, who is one of the charity’s co-founders, gave a special talk at the training event, to remind everyone of the importance of the work they were doing.
After the training session, the ‘Schools Champions’ were asked to plan and hold an event or activity that aimed to tackle homophobic bullying at their college.
Sophie, who is studying A-Levels in Media, English and Drama, chose to plan a series of workshops around the issue of homophobic language. She explained, “I think that throwaway comments such as ‘that’s so gay’ can seem casual, but this type of behaviour is often one of the biggest issues when tackling homophobia in college.”
The ‘Challenging Homophobia’ interactive workshops were held in the drama studio at Eccles, and over the three sessions Sophie presented to over 140 students. Some of the students even stayed behind after the presentations to ask how they could get involved with the charity.
“I would love to hold more of the workshops again in the future, as I received really positive feedback from the other students at college, and as a result my old high school have asked if I would present to their pupils,” commented former Swinton High student Sophie. “I am also looking into the possibility of tailoring my workshops to create a training session for teachers, so that they can take a more active approach to condoning homophobic language in the classroom.”
Sophie will return to London later this year for an awards ceremony that will recognise the hard work put in by all who took part in the ‘Schools Champions’ programme.
