Students and staff at Okehampton College marked Pride month with assemblies, tutor time sessions, lessons and a different LGBT+ icon in the daily student bulletin. The daily bulletin included famous LGBT+ people from history and from today – from |Leonardo da Vinci to Welsh Rugby captain Gareth Thomas.

The Pride Alliance group has been running in the College for 8 years and is for LGBT+ students and their friends and supporters – it aims to stop homophobic and transphobic bullying of students. Students from the College’s Pride Alliance have taken our message of tolerance and diversity into the local community. Over 20 students form the Pride Alliance joined Exeter Pride – the biggest Pride event in Devon with thousands attending and Staff from the College and students also joined Tavistock Pride on 25^th June. This was the first such event in West Devon and had strong support from the local community with local businesses and local people turning out in their hundreds.

Members of the Pride Alliance finished the month on 30^th June by attending a Schools Conference in Bodmin run by the Intercom Trust, the leading LGBT+ charity in the South West. This brought together nearly 200 students from schools across Cornwall and Devon to mark 50 years since the first Pride march in the UK. Students learnt about the history of the movement to achieve equality for LGBT+ people and discussed how far we had come and what priorities there are now. Students form the College took a leading role in the day, contributing to workshops and speaking in the main sessions. They were a credit to the College.