Minutes: March 2004
Wednesday 3 March 2004
held at Civic Offices Committee Room 2
Present: Barrie, Doug, Helen, James, Jane, Keith, Liz, Matthew, Nick, Tony, Annette, Sue, Christine
Guests: Katrina Carpenter, Johnny Coleman, Kim Burgess
Apologies: Kate Reynolds, Assistant Director of Planning and Resources
| Item | Action | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Discussion on Sex Education and homophobic bullying | |
| 1.1 | Katrina is employed jointly by the Local Education Authority and the Primary Care Trust in Swindon as the teacher responsible for Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) along with Citizenship. | |
| 1.2 | PSHE is not a statutory subject, so it is taught at the discretion of each school. | |
| 1.3 | Training for Teachers and Governors on Sex and Relationships was offered in 2003. Of the 80 schools within Swindon, only 50% have sent members of staff on the course. | |
| 1.4 | A refresher course will be offered in 2005 - there is no obligation for schools to attend this training. | |
| 1.5 | School Governors do have a legal responsibility for sex education being taught in schools. | |
| 1.6 | No training or advice is offered to schools on the subject of transgender issues, but assistance or guidance would be welcome. | |
| 1.7 | Section 28 had never been an issue for teaching within schools, but the law as written did leave the majority of teachers in an anxious position. | |
| 1.8 | Kim is head of Knowledge, Information and Performance in Planning and Resources at Swindon Borough Council. | |
| 1.9 | A draft Equalities Action Plan for Schools was circulated. At present this document does not contain any proposals to tackle homophobic issues within bullying policies that schools are encouraged to adopt. | |
| 1.10 | The Local Education Authority would welcome any comments from the LGBT Equality coalition on this subject. | |
| 1.11 | There are issues for lesbian and gay parents who may find themselves faced with homophobic situations within the school environment. This should be another issue that LGBT could address over coming months. | |
| 1.12 | Tony raised a personal experience as a School Governor at a Primary School in the mid-1980s. The Governing body of that school were not prepared to discuss or circulate HIV prevention materials or bring the topic to the attention of junior-school age pupils. | |
| 1.13 | An LGBT Task Group would be formed to consider the issues discussed at this meeting. Helen, Jane, Jo and Matthew would meet on Thursday 11th March and report back to the April meeting. | All |
| 2 | Apologies for Absence Sally, Robin, Sharon, James, Jase | |
| 3 | Minutes of the Last Meeting, Christine requested her name be added to the list of apologies. Minutes agreed. | |
| 4 | Matters Arising | |
| 4.1 | The 'Equalities Launch' Lunch will be on 24th March from 12noon. As many members as possible were encouraged to attend | All |
| 4.2 |
A new web site design was adopted by a majority vote.
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| 4.3 | The web-designer would be informed. www.lgbtswindon.org.uk | Matthew |
| 4.4 | The Evening Advertiser would prepare a news article. Helen would assist with quotes to the media. | Helen |
| 4.5 | Although early days, the site already had a number of reports giving information and points of contact for the LGBT community. Continued publicity would need to be generated to maximise visits but more importantly to provide a useful resource for visitors. | |
|
Future Meetings:
Wed 7 April Civil Partnership Review Wed 5 May Housing services to LGBT community Wed 2 June Wed 7 July |
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| 5 | Date of next meeting is: Wednesday 7th April at 7pm in CR2 |
