Forest Hill School is an inclusive community comprising a diverse population of both students and staff and is committed to promoting and developing equality of opportunity in all aspects of school life.

The Equality Group comprises staff and students across the year groups and meets every Thursday lunchtime in Ms Richardson’s room in the Art block to discuss issues affecting LGBTQ+ community members, and to carry out projects to increase visibility of LGBTQ+ matters. The group has been awarded the Stonewall Bronze Award for its hard work, including re-writing school policies to be LGBTQ+ friendly, training staff on how to deal with HBT (homophobic, biphobic and transphobic) bullying, and monitoring HBT incidents in the school.

They have also worked hard to celebrate diversity in the school: they have created an equality banner which hangs in the atrium, LBGTQ+ displays in the library and corridors, and clearly marked ‘safe spaces’ for LGBTQ+ students. They celebrate LGBTQ+ history month with competitions, an LBGTQ+ film club and fundraising activities for LGBTQ+ charities.

The KS4 and staff ambassadors have walked in the London Pride parade, and ambassadors throughout the school attended a reward trip to Greenwich, which included a picnic and has led to involvement in a project with Royal Museums Greenwich, exploring gender representations.

The Equality Group is also the proud winner of a Mayor of London’s Volunteering award in the Bringing Londoners Together category. On Monday 14 October 2019, they joined other individuals, teams and organisations who have made outstanding contributions to their London communities at the Chamber in City Hall, to collect their award.

“The students and staff who make up the Equality Group have worked incredibly hard to achieve this and we are extremely proud of them. It is also fantastic to see them getting the public recognition they deserve for all the phenomenal work they have done in making Forest Hill School the positive and inclusive community that it is.”

Michael Sullivan, Headteacher

Students wishing to join the Equality Group should speak to one of the following members of staff: Ms Learoyd, Ms Suart, Ms MacMillan, Ms Sparkes, Mr Cox, Ms Whale, Mr Orsacek, Ms Richardson.