White Ribbon
This month’s HSS Blog comes from Mr Simm who is one of our ‘Belonging Project Leads’ in school. These roles were created last academic year to work with SLT and further promote and support diversity, equity and inclusion at HSS. These Leads work with Mrs Hamnett in her role as Assistant Head for Inclusion to try to ensure the sense of belonging, happiness and safety in our HSS values statement is a reality for all students and staff.
Working with White Ribbon UK and working towards accreditation as a White Ribbon School has been a key part of that work.
White Ribbon
The decision to pursue White Ribbon accreditation for High Storrs School was a very quick and certain decision. Being associated with a charity that seeks to raise awareness of male violence directed at women and girls does not require much in the way of soul searching. Nor does championing a refusal to ignore any such violent behaviour, whether it be verbal or physical.
We began by recruiting male teachers as Ambassadors and female teachers as Champions, with a view to forming a steering group. We already have plenty of both, and the hope is the group will plan events that take place throughout the school year to help keep alive the values of White Ribbon UK.
November 25th saw us celebrate and support the official White Ribbon Day. With help from the Head Team, we sold 100 white ribbons and made over £250 that will be used to support other awareness raising endeavors. Students across the school were encouraged to make pledges on white cards that will be arranged into position around the school – emblematic of our school’s commitment to the ideals of the charity.
As ever, there is always more work to do. And the work will continue in 2022.
