The event was staged by our Equality and Diversity Council and the Lead for Equality and Diversity, Alice Betts, explained: “The purpose of the event was to celebrate the end of Pride month and to show our LGBTQIA+ students that they are seen and can be proud of celebrating themselves.

“At Springwood, we have a variety of student councils, one being Equality and Diversity. The aim is to promote equality and diversity around the school in various ways, with me facilitating that. At the start of the year, we wrote a school pledge for people to sign up to, so we could encourage people to be more accepting of others.

“The pledge is: ‘I can be proud of who I am. I will ensure others have the safety and freedom to be proud of who they are’.”

Students from the council ran different stalls at Springwood Pride, which was open to the whole school, and also featured activities such as badge making, cookie decorating and face painting, along with a Pride-themed photo booth, music, and a quiz created by Springwood’s sixth formers.

“Students from all year groups attended,” continued Mrs Betts. “I organised and prepped the event, Miss Chloe Lister ran the face-painting stand, and many staff from various departments came down to support and supervise.

“As it was part of the school day, the students weren’t able to change out of uniform – many were going back to lessons with rainbow-themed face paint afterwards, though.”

“Events like this are vital to all of our students,” she added. “It creates visibility where LGBTQIA+ students can see that the school supports them and will give them the time and space to be who they are, but also for other students to see that the school is openly supporting Pride, so therefore educating them that homophobia will not be tolerated at Springwood.

“I’ve had so many students find me after the event to thank me for organising it, as they know that supporting them is a priority at Springwood. This was the first time we’ve had this event, but it will definitely become an annual thing, and we want to make it bigger and better next year.”