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Young members of the LGBTQ+ community were able to express themselves among their school peers with time devoted to diversity.

Forest Hall School acknowledged Diversity Week with a programme of activities to bring about conversation.

Students who attend the school’s LGBTQ+ club and the student executive team helped to create a display of handprints decorated by their classmates showing their support to the community.

The week also saw students learn about Diversity Week and take part in a quiz about the LGBTQ+ community to get them thinking about the diversity of people around them.

They also watched videos of young people’s stories of growing up in the LGBTQ+ community and took part in a house challenge based around Diversity Week with maths, general knowledge and celebrity sections.

Sarah Power, enrichment lead, said: “The month of June is Pride month when we work with LGBTQ+ charity Just Like Us to mark Diversity Week. We sign up every year to access their fantastic resources, masterclasses, workshops and guest speakers to promote LGBTQ+ in class.

“It was just so nice to see our students in the LGBTQ+ community being themselves completely in a safe space. They were doing something for themselves. They are very young and so it was lovely to be able to do that with them and to see them really happy. It was great to put up the display of hundreds of ‘helping hands’ to show our whole community coming together.

“It is important to show we are supportive of all of our students, regardless of their gender, background or sexuality. We wanted to give them this space to be able to express themselves.

“Students have been at home for a lot more time than they ever would be and so have been exposed to just one or two opinions, which has had an affect on them. It has been good to be able to expose them to more.

“There were lots of discussions going on around the classrooms. The week gave teachers an opportunity to have those open discussions that might not have happened otherwise.”