Shaun Dellenty
Having qualified as a teacher in 1996, Dellenty, has also worked previously as a seconded improving schools consultant and he now serves as a part time equalities consultant (in addition to his full time role as a school leader.)
Campaign on homophobic bullying
A survivor of sustained homophobic bullying as a child (which resulted in him walking out of state education in 1987) Dellenty remained ‘closeted’ as a teacher until 2009. In November 2009 Dellenty’s own school uncovered via pupil questionnaires that 75% pupils within school in the Bermondsey/Rotherhithe locality were being subjected to daily homophobic language or abuse or were hearing the word ‘gay’ being used as a pejorative term on a daily basis. In response and using the date as a trigger‘came out’ to his whole school community and founded 'Inclusion For All', a small not for profit charitable organisation aiming to effect organisational change in communities, schools, faith schools and other educational contexts. Such was the rapid success and interest in Dellenty’s life- story and IFA work, he has now supported or spoken across a huge range of schools, teacher training establishments, faith schools, local authorities and anti-bullying organisations including; Amnesty UK, Stonewall, National College of Teaching and Leadership, NSPCC, Kidscape, Open University, Liverpool Hope and John Moores Universities, London South Bank University, Institute of Education, Hull University, University of Greenwich, House of Commons and many more. In addition to school based training sessions Dellenty also speaks on radio and television and at hate crime and anti-bullying conferences, TEDx, national LGBT Pride events and LGBT history month events both in the UK and abroad. In 2014 alone Dellenty had invitations to speak to audiences in Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Hungary and Armenia. In 2013 Inclusion For All was awarded the Southwark Good Practice Award by the mayor of Southwark. Dellenty leads regional IFA training days around the country with recently arranged events in Brighton, Liverpool, Gateshead, Birmingham, Hull, Cheshire, London, and Devon. Dellenty's work has been the feature of articles in the Times Educational Supplement, Leadership Focus, LDR Magazine, Teach Primary, Huffington Post, The Guardian, London Evening Standard, The Mirror, The Telegraph and many more. A prolific writer and blogger, Dellenty has written articles for Teach Primary magazine, The Guardian, Gay Star News, Gay Times, LDR magazine and others. In 2012 and 2013 Dellenty was nominated onto the Independent on Sunday 'Pink List' of the 101 most influential LGBT people in the UK. In 2013 and 2014 he was nominated for the Royal Air Force 'LGBT Inspirational Role Model Award' by Square Peg Media. In 2013 and 2014 he was nominated as 'LGBT Inspirational Role Model' at the National Diversity Awards and Inclusion For All was nominated for the 'LGBT Community Group' award. Dellenty has also been nominated ‘Unsung Hero In Education’ at the 2015 Excellence In Diversity Awards. In 2013 and 2014 Dellenty was invited to help judge the Amnesty International Young Journalist of the Year Award. In June 2013 and 2014 Dellenty returned to his old secondary school in Leicestershire to speak about growing up gay being bullied and his IFA work, writing about his experience in an article for The Guardian which went viral.In Autumn 2014 Dellenty’s IFA work will be broadcast nationally as part of the CBBC series ‘Our School’ In May 2014 Dellenty's IFA work was recommended by the Church of England in their ‘Valuing All God’s Children’ anti-homophobic bullying resource; Dellenty led a student workshop alongside secondary school pupils and the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at Trinity School Lewisham with headteacher Father Richard Peers naming Shaun as ‘the best speaker on homophobic bullying I have heard’. In 2015 Dellenty will be speaking at the London Festival of Education; he writing his first book ‘That Gay Teacher’ about his journey and IFA work. In 2012 Dellenty worked with EV Crowe and the cast and production team of the play 'Hero' at the Royal Court Theatre, which was in part inspired by observations undertaken by the 'Hero' cast and production team of Dellenty working with pupils in school. Dellenty will also be appearing in the forthcoming 'After 82' to discuss the arrival of HIV/AIDS in the UK and the role of sex education in schools. http://www.after82.co.uk/
Dellenty is also very active on Twitter under the handle: @ShaunDellenty
External links
- In May 2013 www.shaundellenty.com became www.inclusionforall.co.uk
- @ShaunDellenty
- http://www.inclusionforall.co.uk Inclusion For All website
- https://www.facebook.com/shaundellentyIFA Facebook page
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=]
