National Inclusion Week

This week is National Inclusion Week. This is the best time for us - as staff, students and a whole community – to recognise how inclusive we really are.

Worksop College opened its doors in 1895; a school comprising of 44 boys, four Masters and one male founder. The school stood as a boys school for 76 years until 1971, when girls began to be accepted into the college. Girls were expected to take sewing and cooking classes, while boys played sport; a notion which is worlds apart from the Worksop College we see today. In 2021 we see girls playing cricket and boys taking on Food and Nutrition. We see both genders choosing whichever activities they like, regardless of societal norms. We are proud of the progress we have made, but we also must be realistic and acknowledge that we still have a way to go.

We are a school with students from 26 nationalities, male and female staff, teachers from far and wide – but can we say we are truly inclusive? Does everyone within our community feel truly included? This week, as Worksop College takes action to be united for inclusion, we asked our students to fill in a questionnaire, asking important questions on inclusion. From this, the school can push to make changes in the right directions, should we have failed to previously notice. This is imperative to us as a school who recognises the importance of wellbeing, as we realise that lack of inclusivity will raise mental health issues.

Our aim is to be a school fully committed, from each and everyone within the community, to being truly inclusive. One which celebrates what makes us different, and never uses that difference as reason for exclusion, whether it be race, gender, sexual orientation or disability. We may not have always got it right in the past, but we pledge to make that change going forward.

Inclusivity has been a journey, but it is one we must continue on, and we need to move faster.