School PSHE/RSE Coram life education programme

[WednesdayChilds]

Hi, I had an email from my child's primary school regarding their PSHE coverage. They will be following the Coram Life Education programme (link below) and are working towards getting a Stonewall Bronze Champion Award.

I'm nervous about what they will be teaching given the creep of gender ideology and the mention of Stonewall, but they have correctly listed the equality act protected characteristics in their email, and cannot see anything regarding gender or 'brain/body mismatch' on the Coram overview, which is reassuring. Does anyone have any experience with Coram, or with the Stonewall Champion Award? I would appreciate any insight. I have searched the site but couldn't find any threads on this. Apologies if I have missed one.

www.coramlifeeducation.org.uk/what-we-do/

[OhHolyJesus]

I only know a tiny bit about them, nothing that helps you, they received some council funding and were declined a second round.

Do you feel you can ask them directly if gender ideology will be covered? Can you ask for lesson content? They should want to allay any fears you have and the government guidelines say nothing extreme can be covered or inaccuracies taught.

[OhHolyJesus]

To be honest I'd ask why they were pursuing getting an award from Stonewall given that founders and stalwart supported have left and formed the LGB Alliance.

Schools need to be pushed on why they make the choices they do, why do think want this award from a highly controversial charity that has influence in government and has rejected same-sex attracted people? The likelihood is they have no clue, it's an opportunity to inform them.

[persistentwoman]

Agree with OhHolyJesus . As Stonewall openly campaigns for the removal of women's rights and single sex spaces, why are the school setting themselves on a path for mixed sex changing rooms, showers, toilets and sport?
Have the school checked that all the materials used are fully compliant with the school's safeguarding policy.
Is all the material age appropriate? What due diligence have they exercised?
Most importantly, how does allowing Stonewall access to children comply with the DfE SRE guidance about not allowing political lobby groups access to children in a one sided way? A political lobby group like Stonewall with an open agenda of lobbying to remove women's rights needs to be counterbalanced with others who believe that women and girls are entitled to sex based rights - eg to undress free from the male gaze etc

I'd ask the school to send you examples of all the materials they'll be using and also let them know that this is a controversial group with significant reported concerns about their understanding of safeguarding.

[JellySlice]

From the Foundation and KS1 lessons I have seen, there is no mention of gender or sexuality in any way. It's all about health (healthy eating, sleep, how digestion works etc) and kindness (bullying, making up, thinking about your actions etc).

I don't know whether other topics are ever covered at these Stages, and I don't know what they cover at KS2.

[Beamur]

Have your school got money to burn? I don't think participation in Stonewalls scheme is free.

[gardenbird48]

Stonewall's website still blatantly misrepresents the law and ignores safeguarding. I would do your best to raise concerns - if this is still what Stonewall are saying, it may not be part of the materials but if someone asks a question, they are likely to receive an answer that is the complete opposite to the truth and in breach of the new government guidelines.

A trans young person may wish to use the toilets and changing rooms of their self-identified gender rather than of their assigned sex. Schools and colleges should make sure that a trans student is supported to do so and be aware that this is a legal requirement under the Equality Act. that is a lie

www.stonewall.org.uk/supporting-young-trans-person-school-or-college

[WednesdayChilds]

Have your school got money to burn? I don't think participation in Stonewalls scheme is free.

Interesting. I don't think they have lots of spare cash... I don't know. The PTA is always busy with fundraisers. I used to help out at the school and got the impression from teachers that funds were tight in general.

Thank you for all the responses. Sorry I was a bit slow to come back to the thread, busy day. I'm not the most confident person, nor the most articulate, but I am concerned about the involvement of Stonewall so I will do my best to raise a few things. Thank you for the advice on the thread. That should give me something to get started. I think my biggest fear is that my daughter will be known as the child with the homophobic mother or something like that. Although I know it's not the case and don't care what they think of me, I just don't want anything to affect badly on her.

[Sweeetcornbananaf]

Safe schools alliance have a good resource for parents about the new RSE PHSE. I gave it to my school to look at to open a conversation with them about content. I think you should go to them with your opinion, perhaps on email and perhaps take a look or link the safe schools resource to help make your points. I felt a bit awkward about opening the conversation but I think as long as you do it in a balanced and polite way most people would know exactly where your coming from and see the sense in what you want.

[WednesdayChilds]

@OhHolyJesus

To be honest I'd ask why they were pursuing getting an award from Stonewall given that founders and stalwart supported have left and formed the LGB Alliance.

Schools need to be pushed on why they make the choices they do, why do think want this award from a highly controversial charity that has influence in government and has rejected same-sex attracted people? The likelihood is they have no clue, it's an opportunity to inform them.

This is a great point. Thank you. I will ask about that.

[Sweeetcornbananaf]

They have a section where they discuss their findings on some providers of content like this for schools ans have a section on stonewall - worth a look.

[WednesdayChilds]

Sweeetcornbananaf thank you that's very helpful too.

[WednesdayChilds]

Safe schools have letter templates too. Brilliant.

[Beamur]

Membership costs
www.stonewall.org.uk/stonewall-school-college-champion-faqs#fees

[OhHolyJesus]

If they don't have money to burn then maybe the Coram teaching is subsidised? It's about £400 a day I think plus the Stonewall fees...I remember a police force ditching Stonewall over the police hours it cost filling in the forms let alone the fees to get the award or training whatever it was...

My understanding is that Coram fairly recently introduced stuff on puberty and online safety. If the school is proud of the connection they should be happy to share lesson content.