Happy International Trans Day of Visibility 2020

We are living through some important and uncertain historic times currently in 2020.

Schools are closed and we have had to say “goodbye”to many valued Hellesdon High SHIELD members, who have left Year 11 prematurely, whilst the country is in lockdown.

It is important that we continue to be kind and to remember that now (more than ever before) we are not lone islands. We are a global community and caring for others in that community has never been more important.

Therefore, today if you can mark Trans Day of Visibility in any way, however small, it will be valued. Even if only a few see your efforts: be kind.

International Men’s Day

We are very proud to unveil our SHIELD video for International Men’s Day!

Our video was premiered around school on the 19th November.  We particularly wanted to draw attention to the importance of men’s mental health and why it is important to talk about our worries.

 

You can watch it here!

School Diversity Week 2019

The SHIELD team have been busy again!

For the past month, we’ve been preparing resources and activities for next week: School Diversity Week 2019.

Our video below explains the main themes of School Diversity Week.  Be sure to give us a like on YouTube!

 

School Diversity Week is an initiative backed by the government.  Over 150 schools in the UK (and beyond) are hosting activities and charitable fundraisers to raise awareness and support for LGBT+ young people.

The charity, Just Like Us, produces a free toolkit to help teachers and pupils run an event in the week that celebrates LGBT+ equality and challenges prejudice in schools and our wider communities.

We’re very proud to be a Stonewall Champion School for the second year running and proud participants in Norwich Pride in July, where members of SHIELD march in the parade.

Have a safe and happy week!

 

Autism Awareness Month 2019

Although it has been a little while since this event occurred at Hellesdon High School, we wanted to give you a quick update on how we marked National Autism Awareness Month this April.

We decided as a group that we’d like to design a Tutor time resource to show all pupils and staff, from Year 7 to Year 13.  We felt that this could be more informative than making a video (our usual method of communication within school!) because we could quote experts and give more statistics than we might remember to say if we just spoke on camera.

Here are some of our slides from the Tutor PowerPoint on Autism Awareness:

 

The PowerPoint certainly raised debate in Miss Baker’s own Tutor group, with pupils asking sensitive and sensible questions about how many pupils in the school may evidence signs of being on the spectrum and how they could help to support pupils with ASD in school.