A BOLTON primary school has become the first in the town to be awarded for its work on tackling LGBT bullying.

Pupils and staff at Oxford Grove Primary School have been given a bronze award by Stonewall — an organisation that campaigns for the equality of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans people across Britain.

Throughout the year pupils from Reception through to year six have been learning about different types of diversity.

Katie Bevin, year one teacher and head of PSHE said: “We wanted to look at not just diversity in terms of ethnicity, but also different families and sexualities.

She said: “We have all worked really hard and we are very proud of the award.

“We have done a lot of teaching on the LGBT topic and the children have been great, they have really took it in their stride.

“We have always done work with the children on diversity and this is just an extra strand of it.

“Children do sometimes throw around words that they don’t know the true meaning of so we have discussed that.

“The work has also been a preventative method to ensure there is no bullying of any nature and we have focused that on LGBT bullying.”

The school put itself forward for the award and were graded at bronze level but will be able to work up to silver and gold.

The award highlights that the school has tackled homophobic, biphobic and transphobic (HBT) bullying, there is information and resources on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans issues accessible to students and that LGBT people and themes are also included in the pupils lessons.

Recently St Stephen's Primary School in Kearsley was criticised by OFSTED for its children not understanding the impact of homophobia and different types of relationships.

Miss Bevin added: “Now that we are on the ladder we have got something to strive towards.

“We hope to move forward in the next few years and build up to the silver and gold awards.

“We have got a plaque that is going to go up on the wall to celebrate the award with our other achievements.”