Monday 17 June - Friday 21 June 2024
Celebrating Pride in every school | Whakanuia te uenuku ki ia kura
Celebrating Schools’ Pride Week is an important way for school communities to affirm that rainbow students, staff and whānau belong.
The ideas and resources on the page support schools, kura, and learning services to integrate Schools Pride with the local curriculum.
About Schools Pride Week NZ
Schools’ Pride Week Aotearoa is an important annual pride campaign celebrating rainbow staff, students and whānau in school communities across the country. School-specific events for Schools’ Pride Week Aotearoa are often run by students, with rainbow diversity groups showcasing their leadership skills to advocate for safer, more inclusive school environments. InsideOUT Kōaro's Schools' Pride Week page has a wide range of activities, programming, and competitions that schools, classes, rainbow diversity groups, and individual students and staff can easily get involved in.
Curriculum connections
Pride week provides an opportunity for building a sense of belonging. It supports students to develop an understanding about inclusion and is an opportunity for schools to connect with local community groups.
Inclusion principle – The curriculum is non-sexist, non-racist, and non-discriminatory; it ensures that students’ identities, languages, abilities, and talents are recognised and affirmed and that their learning needs are addressed.
Community engagement principle – The curriculum has meaning for students, connects with their wider lives, and engages the support of their families, whānau, and communities.
Inclusive curriculum resources
Aotearoa NZ's Histories - Our stories: LGBTQIA+ - Teaching guidance - examples of histories of LGBTQIA+ communities and a link to the KNOW element in the Aotearoa New Zealand's histories curriculum.
Health and Physical Education - Relationships and sexuality education: A guide for teachers, leaders and boards of trustees - Sexuality education in New Zealand schools supports and acknowledges diversity among students. This refreshed resource focuses strongly on consensual, healthy and respectful relationships as being essential to student wellbeing. It is available as separate guides for years 1–8 and 9–13. These guides include approaches to RSE for LGBTQI+ ākonga.
InsideOUT - This website has many downloadable resources designed to help your school integrate rainbow-inclusive content into your curriculum at all year levels. One of the resources "Rainbow Inclusive Curriculum Ideas" is organised by the seven key learning areas in The New Zealand Curriculum but can be implemented across areas. Some of these ideas have been adapted from those outlined in the Ministry of Education’s relationships and sexuality education guidelines.
Image - InsideOUT School Resources page.
Guide to supporting LGBTIQA+ students - practical strategies to support the inclusion and wellbeing of students who identify as sex, gender, or sexuality diverse (SGSD) in this online guide from the Inclusive Education website.
Instructional series resource
Break-up Day - School Journal, Level 4, May 2021
Kyle Mewburn shares her experience of growing up as a transgender girl and explores gender in a way that shows how, despite the challenges and expectations of others, she managed to find a sense of identity and belonging
Silk Robes and Big Hats - School Journal, Level 4, June 2023
This article explores the work of multi-disciplinary artist Sam Duckor-Jones. “Sam’s work asks us to imagine a pinker, joyful, more inclusive world – one where we’re all free to put on silk robes and big hats and be absolutely, unapologetically ourselves.”
Best Wedding Ever - School Journal, Level 3, November 2022
Levi’s dads are getting married, but he has other things on his mind.
How can your school get involved?
Organise Schools' Pride Week activities in your school.
Affirm that rainbow tamariki, rangitahi and their whānau belong in your school and community - and learn and have fun at the same time.
Participate in the Out on the Shelves Campaign Month
Out on the Shelves is a growing online reading resource that lists books from around the world with rainbow themes and characters. Out on the Shelves also supports school and community libraries to grow their rainbow reading collections and help connect rainbow people to their stories and each other.
Out on the Shelves Campaign Month is a month of workshops, events and competitions for rainbow young people and participating school and community libraries.
Image - Raglan Area School display - Out on the Shelves book display competition 2022.
InsideOUT is a national charity working to give rainbow young people in Aotearoa New Zealand a sense of safety and belonging in their schools and communities.
- Support for schools – Coordinators, professional development and networking support for schools
- Resources for schools - Print and online resources that can be downloaded digitally or ordered as physical copies.
RainbowYouth provides support, information, resources, and advocacy for Aotearoa’s queer, gender diverse, takatāpui and intersex youth. They support students to feel safe and included in their schools and communities.
Gender Minorities Aotearoa
This nationwide transgender organisation offers information, advocacy and wrap-around support for transgender people.
- Study and school – resources on studying and school environments for trans and intersex students, school staff, families, and supporters.
- Professional development – consultation and training on stigma and discrimination, diversity and inclusion, sensitivity, and specific situations tailored to your needs.
Takatāpui | A resource hub
Takatāpui is a traditional Māori term meaning ”intimate companion of the same sex”.
Resources include:
- Takatāpui: Part of the whānau - a resource is for takatapui, their whānau and communities. It shares stories and information about identity, wellbeing and suicide prevention.
- Growing up taktāpui: Whānau journeys - interviews with seven takatāpui rangatahi and their whānau inform the journey and the importance of whānau support in a takatāpui young person's life.
Ko tātou tēnei | This is us
This action research paper highlights the experiences of Māori in the LGBTQIA+ community. It includes stories from five ākonga Māori who identify as rangatahi takatāpui – those who identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
The document can be downloaded as a PDF.
Whakanuia te uenuku ki ia kura - Education Gazette, Volume 101, Number 8, June 2022
Stories about how three different schools celebrated Schools' Pride Week in 2022.
Image - Education Gazette.
Why pride is needed in every New Zealand school in 2020 (August 2020) – a good discussion-starter
A Wellington High school student talks about what it was like coming out in 2000, a year after his classmate, a victim of a hate crime, was murdered.
How teachers are making classrooms safe spaces for LGBTIQA+ students (June 2021) – the role of Pride Month in the classroom
Primary and secondary teachers share their thoughts about ways to update the New Zealand Curriculum and ideas for making your classroom LGBTIQA+ inclusive.
Remembering the marriage equality bill 10 years on (April 2023) - Ten years ago, the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill passed, legalising same-sex marriage in Aotearoa. A look back on the landmark moment, with reflections from some of our current rainbow MPs.
Cook Islands' first Pride Week (March, 2020)
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