Rainbow Day

Celebrating diversity at Northcote High School

On Friday we celebrated Rainbow Day to mark the recent International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. Rainbow Day acknowledges the diversity of our whole school community including anyone who is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, gender diverse  and Queer.   This might include any who come from a rainbow family or who have other people in their families who identify as LGBTIQ.  Staff and students marked the day by wearing rainbow clothes and with a range of special events and activities.  It was truly a celebratory day and more than one student said it makes them proud to be at NHS.

Staff enjoyed a morning tea with an impressive (and delicious) rainbow cake  - thanks to Marion in the Canteen.

The Art Club worked all week on the wonderful new mural on the L3 wall, with coloured 'skittles' representing the rainbow.

The Library came alive at lunchtime with a Year 7 band performing, guest speakers from YGender and a session with Decibels staff from Darebin - who left with quite a few new signed ups to their sessions for young people who are not usually part of the music scene - especially young women, young gender diverse and trans people.  It was fabulous to see the new LGBTIQ books on display too. Outside, rainbow donuts, coloured hairspray and facepainting were very popular.

All the students involved did a wonderful job with setting up the space, chalking messages, spraying hair and facepainting, speaking, selling donuts - as well as the tricky job of raising money from everyone when they arrived in the morning. An extra special thanks to Tessa, PJ and Orlando for their fantastic music.

Donations collected from the day will see $1000 going directly to YGENDER, a peer led social support and advocacy group for trans/gender diverse young people.