Stand Up Week one of many events at Benildus College

Stand Up Week took place in St Benildus College between November 14th and 18th with many activities taking place throughout the week.

One of the main events was non-uniform day on Thursday which allowed students to express themselves whilst also raising money for the BeLonG To Charity. BeLonG To is the charity behind the Stand Up week and they do excellent work with LGBTQ+ youths. We raised over €1,300 which is an incredible amount!

The 1st and 2nd years took part in mindful colouring of positive LGBTQ+ phrases which were stuck up around the school. The entire school took place in an origami project, where each student was asked to create origami butterflies of varying colours and display them around the school. This was a great success as the walls were flooded with the butterflies symbolising the unity between the school community.

Teachers in the school also wore pride stickers either on their clothes or on their laptop to symbolise their support for the LGBTQ+ community. Many teachers made a special effort to incorporate an LGBTQ+ theme into their lessons, which was very effective. The Art & Music classes in TY continued the trend of doing a collaborative project between the two groups.

Our GSA club (Gay, Straight Alliance) continues to run each week. It takes place on Wednesday in Room 5.1 (green room on the science corridor) for the 12:50 lunch (2nd, 3rd, 5th years) and Thursday in Room 6.1 for the 12:10 lunch (1st, 4th, 6th years). We still get new members each week, which is great to see!

We held a cinema club in the library daily during Stand Up Week, showing the critically acclaimed Netflix show, Heartstopper. It is a British coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama series telling the story of a gay schoolboy who falls in love with his classmate.

Although Run for Life and Stand Up week didn’t coincide this year, we still kept the tradition of doing a colour run with the 3rd years. We got perfect weather again this year, which made for some great photos! The lads really enjoy the treat of getting to do this when they reach 3rd year and all participated enthusiastically!

Many thanks to all the staff and students who made this such a memorable week, in particular to the students who spent time creating posters to be displayed around the school.