Elly Barnes

Elly Barnes MBE grew up in Leicestershire and knew from an early age that she was attracted to girls, but growing up in a time without the internet or mobile phones she never had heard of being a lesbian before. After school she studied for a degree in music at Birmingham Conservatoire, and went on to complete her PGCE after becoming interested in teaching music.

Elly came to Stevenage in Hertfordshire to complete her NQT year at The Barclay School, whilst also studying for a Diploma in Music Technology at the University of Hertfordshire. She then spent a year travelling around Hertfordshire and London as a music teacher. After studying and working in Hertfordshire, she found a permanent position as a music teacher at Stoke Newington School in North London, and became Head of Year in 2005. By now, Elly was confident to identify herself as a lesbian, and would tell anyone who asked her.

When Elly became Head of Year, Section 28 had only been repealed two years prior, and LGBT+ History Month had only been founded the previous year. People were only just starting to talk about LGBT+ issues in a school setting, and Elly knew she needed to contribute. She decided her Year 7 students needed to celebrate LGBT+ History Month that year, and teachers of all different subjects incorporated LGBT+ history into their lessons. It was a huge success, and Elly and her fellow teachers developed the programme across the next few years into a school-wide celebration.

In 2012, Elly’s work paid off when Ofsted awarded her school ‘best practice’ status for tackling homophobia in the school. Back in 2010, Elly created the ‘Educate & Celebrate’ PRIDE in Inclusion Award resource programme to support schools and other educational institutions. The aim is to provide teacher training, coaching and mentoring to help these institutions build an inclusive curriculum and environment for gender and sexual orientation issues. Thousands of schools and organisations now access Educate & Celebrate services both nationally and internationally.

Recognition for Elly’s work only increased across the 2010s, and she was voted no. 1 in The Independent on Sunday’s Rainbow List in 2011 for her commitment to LGBT+ education. In 2015 Elly and Educate & Celebrate partnered with the Department for Education to work on an Anti-homophobic, biphobic and transphobic project. Her work on this led to her receiving an MBE for her contribution to equality and diversity in education. She continues her work today, and Educate & Celebrate is thriving.