Elly Barnes

Elly Barnes MBE (born 1971 in Leicestershire) is the Founder and Chief Executive of the charity Educate & Celebrate, She was voted Number 1 in the Independent on Sunday's Pink List in 2011[1] (now the Rainbow List), and was a judge in 2012.

Elly Barnes
Born1971 (age 49–50)
Leicestershire, England, UK
OccupationCEO
OrganizationEducate & Celebrate

Elly Barnes was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2016 for her contribution to education, equality and diversity.[2] She also received her honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen in November 2016 and won the Activist of the Year 2018 award from Diva Magazine.

Elly has formed a close partnership with Goldsmiths University of London and together with Dr Anna Carlile wrote a book of all the research from the Educate & Celebrate Programme released in March 2018 called How To Transform Your School into An LGBT+Friendly Place: A Practical Guide for nursery, primary and secondary teachers.

Education

Barnes attended Market Bosworth High School and The Bosworth College. She then studied for a degree in music, specialising in voice, at the Birmingham Conservatoire and then completed her Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) at the faculty of Education at the University of Central England, now known as Birmingham City University. She had her Newly qualified teacher (NQT) year at The Barclay School in Stevenage whilst studying for a Diploma in Music Technology at Hertfordshire University. Barnes completed an MA in school based explorations at Goldsmiths University.[3]

Early LGBT Work

Barnes first job was as a peripatetic singing teacher in Hertfordshire and London. She then obtained a permanent teaching role at Stoke Newington School in North London becoming Head of Year in 2005. That year, she began working with Schools Out to initiate LGBT History Month at Stoke Newington School with the aim of eradicating homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic language and bullying by challenging young people's (and teachers, parents and governors) perceptions of LGBT+ people.

The approach taken by LGBT History Month was to educate young people about different gender identities and sexual orientations by introducing recognisable symbols of the LGBT community, famous LGBT people and the history of the LGBT struggle.[4]

During these early years Barnes and her team created LGBT+Inclusive schemes of work for their year 7 including ICT lessons on Alan Turing, LGBT+ symbols, key rings, rainbow flag in Design & Technology and songs by queer artists in music.[5] All the teachers in the year team contributed; the project developed over the next 7 years[6] into a school-wide celebration of LGBT History Month with an integrated curriculum for which received ‘best practice’ status from Ofsted in 2012 for successfully tackling homophobic bullying and ingrained attitudes in our schools stating that ‘This approach has been highly successful.’[7]

Educate & Celebrate

In 2010 Barnes developed her theory and practice into the ‘Educate & Celebrate’[8] teacher training and resource programme to make educational institutions ‘LGBT+Friendly’ through standardising and creating centres of 'best practice'.[9] Educate & Celebrate is now a well-respected charity delivering their programmes in the UK, Channel Islands and beyond making organisations in all sectors ‘LGBT+Friendly’ through standardising and creating centres of 'best practice'.

References
  1. "The Independent on Sunday Pink List 2011". The Independent on Sunday. 23 October 2011.
  2. "Queen's Birthday Honour's 2016: Education and Children's Services". Gov.uk.
  3. "Dr Elly Barnes". Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  4. Drabble, Emily (17 February 2013). "How I built a career in LGBT education". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  5. Drabble, Emily (4 February 2013). "How to teach...LGBT History Month". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  6. Learner, Sue (26 October 2010). "Making Homophobia History". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  7. "Good practice resource - A whole-school approach to tackling homophobic bullying and ingrained attitudes: Stoke Newington School and Sixth Form". Ofsted. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
  8. "Home * Educate & Celebrate". Educate & Celebrate. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  9. Godfrey, Chris (20 November 2014). "Homophobic abuse in schools is not the fault of the students – it's the fault of the schools". The Independent. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
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