As a small rural school in East Sussex with a largely white, and not very diverse school population, we are taking a step forward as a whole staff and student body to increase awareness and promote diversity.
As a PE teacher, I decided that an effective way to highlight equality, diversity and inclusion in sport and in our school, was to use these real life athletes. What better role models to use than those who have been successful in sport whilst facing challenges in their own lives? Students gain so much understanding from relating to successful people in their field of interest, and these athletes stories need to be shared for that exact reason. That is why I decided to make these posters to be displayed in our PE corridor.
They showcase successful athletes with different sexualities, genders, disabilities and ethnicities. The athletes chosen have had a range of publicity, and students will be more aware of some of these sportsmen and women than others. I specifically chose to introduce our students to some sports people who they perhaps wouldn’t recognise, due to the monumental impact they have had historically in sport. There are so many more interesting people, including athletes, with stories to be told so that they can be role model to the younger generation so this is just a start for our school, but it’s definitely a big step forward.
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About the author
@MissLeszniwskyj is a PE NQT in Rye, East Sussex at a mixed rural school. I got my degree at Cardiff Met in 2019 and then trained to teach at the Uni of Brighton 2019-2020. My training got interrupted in March 2020 due to Covid. I base my pedagogy on building relationships with students, no matter their background. As a competitive gymnast in trampolining throughout my childhood and university days, it was often easy to miss that there still isn’t a gender inequality in sport today. Training and working in rural schools has helped me to see this, and has made me really interested in increasing awareness for equality, diversity and inclusion.
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