The college’s D&I platform recently co-hosted the first in a series of training sessions, A conversation with…, in collaboration with #DiverseEd.
Diverse Educators is a grass roots community and series of events for intersectional conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion in education.
A conversation with Jude Guaitamacchi was a great first choice, as Jude has already engaged with the college community multiple times during the past few months. In this transgender awareness training, Jude introduced key terminology within LGBTQ+ language, including their own identity of trans and non-binary. Their honest and open sharing of experiences was well received by an audience of teachers and parents who tuned in to the Zoom call.
What Jude so clearly highlighted was the inclusion of anyone no matter what their identity – an area in which the Hurst community has been making great progress. This can be through normalising sharing pronouns, introducing gender-neutral bathrooms and reducing (or in a perfect world removing) the gender biases which are held and accidentally invoked when teaching. Small changes, such as using ‘team’ instead of ‘ladies and gents’ is one way of creating an inclusive space for every student.
“ We look forward to continuing our relationship with Jude, who provides a raw and valuable message in working with and for students of any gender and sexual identity ” Phoebe Lewis, Teacher of Psychology
Find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at Hurst College