The Newark Orchard school celebrated the LGBTQ+ community with a fun day of pride activities
A Newark school, celebrated diversity recently with colourful pride events across all age groups.
It was a day of fun and celebrations at the Newark Orchard school — which is a generic special school catering for pupils aged from 3 to 18 — with activities such as cake decorating, arts and crafts activities, a parade and disco as well as a visit from a drag queen, who spent the day reading to students and answering questions.
The atmosphere was joyful and inclusive as students waving handmade pride flags took to the playground to learn about and show their support for the LGBTQ+ community.
Joe Hayes, 27, a teacher at the school, described what the children had been up to in preparation for the day, he said: "All week we've been doing pride activities like baking pride flag cakes and making hand made decorations, flags and banners.
"Events like these are incredibly important for our students, because they most likely won't get to experience these things outside of the school."
Joe's remarks were echoed by Margot Tyers, head teacher at the Orchard school, who said: "We've had a fabulous reaction from the students who have been really interested and inquisitive about pride, asking a lot of questions, but in a really respectful way because they themselves know what it's like to meet people different to themselves here at the school".
People in the community also decided to get involved with the school activities, one of them being Aida H Dee, a drag queen who travels the country reading stories about inclusivity and LGBTQ+ awareness.
Aida, who writes her own children's books and tours schools reading them to children said: "The book I read today (The Three Goats United) was about three little goats who are all different colours and they stand up to another goat who starts to bully them.
"All of my characters are queer in one way or another, but the focus is on standing up to bullies.
"I think it's important to show that queer characters can be much more than their sexuality which they are so often portrayed as in mainstream media. I want to normalise having these differences so that it doesn't become the focus and isn't one dimensional."
Margot spoke enthusiastically about Aida, saying: "She'd been reading the same story over and over all day, to different classes, never dropping in enthusiasm and the children were captivated the entire time"
Aida also runs her own business, Drag Queen Story Hour UK, where drag performers provide interactive kids shows to demonstrate that being different is not a bad thing, and to provide imaginative role models for children to look up to.
She said: "I didn't really have any queer role models growing up, so I want to ensure that the children of today have queer people to look up to."
The pride event was the first large scale celebration that the school has held following the pandemic, they had previously held smaller activity days such as a Jubilee party earlier in June but all other events were held virtually.
The head teacher, Margot concluded saying: "I think it was really important to hold an event of this scale to really have a celebration where everyone could get involved.
"We're planning on holding a celebration assembly at the end of term where all of the parents and carers can all come along and appreciate everything the children have achieved this year".
The Newark Orchard School teaches children of all ages and backgrounds, their motto being ‘Individual Growth for Individual People’.
At the heart of everything they do is fitting the curriculum around the individual needs of a child, tailoring the learning process to make sure that students get the most out of their time at school and are best prepared to enter the world of work when they leave.
