The guide, Respect: Creating a Welcoming and Positive School Climate to Prevent Homophobic and Transphobic Bullying in Primary School was developed by GLEN, the INTO and the INTO LGBT Group and aims to help teachers appropriately and sensitively deal with homophobic and transphobic bullying and inclusion.

Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan T.D. said, “Every primary school classroom has children from a diverse range of backgrounds and family types. Every child needs to feel that they belong and that they are welcomed, respected and valued.

“The Respect resource we are launching today will support the whole primary school community in creating an inclusive and positive school climate, so that all children can flourish to the best of their abilities”.

Sandra Irwin-Gowran, Director of Education Policy at GLEN added, “Bullying is an issue for many children in our schools and for some this can take the form of homophobic or transphobic bullying. Encouraging respectful relationships across the school community is key to preventing bullying, particularly identity-based bullying. This guide is the first to support primary teachers in including homophobic and transphobic bullying in their bullying prevention work.”

The guide, which will be distributed to all members of INTO, will officially launch this evening at 5.30PM in the Department of Education and Skills.