Together with Rachel Long, the College’s Equality and Diversity Lead, and Kelly Atkin, PACE Keyworker, they attended the training session, which was facilitated by The Diana Award and held virtually over Microsoft Teams.  The students participated in learning about how to discuss topics around LGBTQ+ support and how to help other students who might experience HBT incidents.  There were only 10 pilot sessions available, therefore the College was delighted that our Ambassadors were lucky enough to take part in the training.  

There were many comments from the Year 9 students who attended the training session including, “The training was a crucial meeting that will help us all to blossom into more accepting people.”  “It was a fun interactive session that I thoroughly enjoyed, it was very interesting and educational, and I learnt a lot.” “This course was amazing, it taught me many new things to help me deal with things when situations come up,” and “I really enjoyed learning about stopping bullying and HBT behaviour, as a member of the LGBT community I liked being more educated on helping my community.”

Whilst our Year 12 students commented, “I thought it gave a really good insight into being in another person’s shoes and how I might help them,” and “It felt really open, and I could say how I felt.  It was a good way to interact with other people with the same views and a really good learning environment which was safe and welcoming.  It inspired me to do more!”

Kelly, added, “This was a very informative session, with some access to great support and inspirational ideas for future campaigns for students to get involved with.  It really brought students who are normally quiet and shy, together, openly talking, laughing and sharing.”

Our Diana Award trainer, Paul Hanman, commented afterwards, “Wow!  Thank you not only for attending the Anti-HBT Ambassador Training session today, but for your amazing young people, truly fantastic you should be proud of them for their wonderful open discussions and superb knowledge around this subject.”