DEAR – Drop Everything and Read
Your DEAR session this week is:
Y7, Y8&Y9
Thursday P6
Sports day 2nd July 2025
What you need to know
• Arrive at Lumsdale for the normal start time and go to the tennis courts to be registered
• Arrive in your Highfields PE kit-Normal kit sanctions apply. No variations of sports kit will be accepted.
• There will be grab and go hot and cold food from the Wheeldon Hall at lunch.
• Make sure you have plenty of water and snacks to have throughout the day,sun cream and a hat.
Sports day 2nd July
The morning:
3 Blocks, each including 3 activities per session in the morning.
The afternoon: Dedicated entirely to athletics track events.
You will compete in your forms. The top form from each year group will earn a trophy and be crowned the winner
During form time over the next few days, you will be choosing teams for each event, EXCEPT for the throwing and track events, which will be preselected by the PE department.
Participation is needed from everyone!!
Important Dates
Bronze Qualifier
19th and 20th June
12th and 13th July
Groups tbc
Silver Qualifier
23rd – 26th June
Gold Qualifier
19th – 23rd July
Monday LGBT+ group
Y7 and Y8 English Homework Help
Lunchtime Lab 1
Lunchtime 1 to 1.30 Rm8 or Rm10 Junior Choir
Y8 Art and Craft club
Lunchtime 1 to 1.30 Music Room
Lunchtime Room 1a
school 3.20 until 4.30
Leaders Lunchtime 1 to 1.30 Cheerleading Week B Lunchtime 1 to 1.30 Parts Mob
3.20 until 4.30 Lunchtime Lab 3 1:05
Thursday Starkholmes Band Lunchtime 1.10-1.40 Music Room
Y7 Homework Club Lunchtime 1 to 1.30 Room 7 Cricket Club After school 3.30 – 4.30 Friday Keyboard Clinic Lunchtime 1.10-1.40 Music Room
Y8 Film club
Lunchtime (bring your lunch)
school 3.20-4.30 in MU1
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Secondary 15 Minute Lesson
Your latest results: “Is ghosting easier for everyone?”
“Ghosting might be easier as you won’t get told lots of negative things about yourself.”
Pensby High School
“It’s easier to ghost someone than explain why you don’t want to be friends with them.”
Danesgate Community
“Be brutally honest as it is fairer on everyone.”
Chelveston Road School
“Ghosting is wrong –what ‘ghosts’ around comes around!”
The Crossley Heath School
47,135 young people voted this week! Were you one of them?
Your latest results: “Is ghosting easier for everyone?”
1:04
Click to hear from Louisa Rose, CEO of Beyond, about her thoughts on your latest VoteTopic results.
Your views on “Is ghosting easier for everyone?” were also heard by:
Beyond
Centre for Emotional Health Empathy Week
University of Brighton Bumble
Want to share your views with us? Share your votes and comments by logging into your VotesforSchools account. You can also get in touch at secondary@votesforschools.com
Today’s VoteTopic:
Does
LGBT+ representation help everyone feel safer in school?
UNCRC Article 2: No discrimination
UN SDG 16: Peace, justice & strong institutions
VfS Key Theme 2: Equalities & identity
1
Why are we talking about this?
June is Pride Month, a celebration of the LGBT+ community.
In this week’s assembly you will hear more about what LGBT+ stands for!
1 Why are we talking about this?
From 23rd-27th June it is also School Diversity Week, the UK-wide celebration of LGBT+ equality in schools.
Just Like Us, who organise School Diversity Week, are keen to find out more about what LGBT+ representation means to you and how it affects your feelings of safety in school – whether you identify as LGBT+ or not.
1 Why are we talking about this?
That’s why this week, you will be voting on the question: “Does LGBT+ representation help everyone feel safer in school?”
Let’s start by breaking down what LGBT+ representation might look like.
2 Representation matters
Individual activity (1-2 mins)
What would positive representation of the LGBT+ community look like in your school? This can be based on something you have seen before, or something you would like to see. Use the pictures to help you!
Mentor:
Someone who gives a younger or less experienced person help and advice.
studying LGBT+ texts
inclusive school uniform policy badges or lanyards
specific assemblies school Pride group
anti-LGBT+ bullying sessions
LGBT+ history lessons
LGBT+ safe spaces visual displays
LGBT+ mentors
celebrating Pride Month
2 Representation matters
LGBT+ safe spaces visual displays
badges or lanyards
LGBT+ history lessons
Individual activity (1-2 mins)
Now consider these ideas (and your own) again. Could any of these benefit everyone in your school?
celebrating Pride Month
studying LGBT+ texts specific assemblies school Pride group
LGBT+ mentors inclusive school uniform policy
anti-LGBT+ bullying sessions
2 Representation matters
visual displays
LGBT+ safe spaces
LGBT+ history lessons
studying LGBT+ texts
Challenge (2-3 mins)
Can you think of any potential downsides to these ideas?
celebrating Pride Month
LGBT+ mentors inclusive school uniform policy badges or lanyards
specific assemblies
school Pride group
anti-LGBT+ bullying sessions
3 Safety in numbers?
Now we’ve explored your ideas of what representation in schools might look like, let’s consider the impact it could have, based on the experiences of young people today.
3 Safety in numbers?
Class activity (4-8 mins)
You are going to see some statistics from two reports published by Just Like Us. For each statistic, try to guess the number that fills the gap . If you have time, discuss: does this show that LGBT+ representation helps everyone?
Safety in numbers?
_____ of pupils say that there are no visual signs of support for LGBT+ people in their school.
Safety in numbers?
Only _____ of LGBT+ pupils who have “never” had positive messages about being LGBT+ feel safe at school on a daily basis.
Which number fills the gap?
Safety in numbers?
This increases to 58% with “few” positive messages and increases again to _____ with “strong” positive messages.
Pupils, both LGBT+ and non-LGBT+, often do not know about LGBT+ initiatives at their school. _____ of pupils do not know if their school has an LGBT+ and/or allies student group.
4 Diversity of opinions
As you’ve seen, there are benefits to LGBT+ representation in schools that can go beyond the LGBT+ community. However, it can be argued that this is not the most direct way to tackle LGBT+ prejudice in schools.
Class activity (1-2 mins)
This time last year, we asked nearly 20,000 of you if you had heard your peers using homophobic language. Do you remember the result?
Clearly, there is still a long way to go in order to make sure that LGBT+ people feel safe in school.
It is important that schools represent all minority groups equally. Pair activity (1 min) Before you vote on “Does LGBT+ representation help everyone feel safer in school?”, choose one of the three opinions. How could you use it as an argument for voting Yes or No?
LGBT+ representation benefits the LGBT+ community the most.
Feeling safe and feeling like you belong are two different things.
Now’s your chance to vote on: “Does LGBT+ representation help everyone feel safer in school?”
Yes
It is important that all students feel supported by their peers and teachers. This helps us feel safe.
Representing LGBT+ people and their stories in school sends a message that everyone is welcome and accepted.
If we show that we do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, this supports other members of our school community too.
Representation is one way of improving feelings of safety, but other things need to happen too.
We need to represent all groups within our school community. This is a good start but not a given it will help everyone.
For some people, LGBT+ representation might make them feel worried about asking or saying the wrong thing.
No
We will be sharing your thoughts on this topic with Just Like Us, The Proud Trust, Barnardo’s, Global Equality Collective and Stonewall.
Log in to your VotesforSchools account to submit your vote and leave a comment.
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
