School have a trans information session/day

I'd keep her off school that day. And if my DC school have one of these educational cult sessions they will be kept off too. Every time.

All this education on trans issues. Never challenging sexism,never talking about autism or children with disabilities. These are political lobby groups in our schools "educating" our children. The children most affected will be autistic or gay.

^But pink it's a fact that people have different opinions .... like religion (we have a citizenship day on that too) - the message was to be tolerant of other even if you don't share their opinion.
I only came on to say that the OP's Dd may find it interesting.^

The trouble is piece, that it needs to be made clear that by transing (as it is generally pitched for children - with puberty blockers followed by cross-sex hormones), you're not actually becoming the opposite sex, no matter how hard you believe you are, so you are sterilising yourself if you do it and becoming a life-long medical patient.

Similarly, if you don't go down the drugs route and just socially transition, you still need to be aware of your sex, because no matter what, when it comes down to it, if a male and a female bump uglies, it's the female that gets pregnant.

I worry that this isn't being made clear, that we're not being truthful with kids and instead just offering 'opinion'

Plus the engineer in me is very annoyed at the mis-use of the word 'spectrum' and the word 'bimodal' would definitely come up in the after-discussion.

Trans ideology is horrifically homophobic and I cannot believe anyone would think having this taught in schools would be supportive to LGBTQ students.

Piece thank you for your answer.
I would be highly unhappy with my child being given the response that it's a matter of differences of opinion because it's not.
One stance is the truth , that the person being called "she" and "woman" is neither a she nor a woman. The other stance is that the person is a woman and a she.

Saying it's all just different opinions and that the lie (which is ultimately a danger to women and girls) must be regarded with "respect " is saying that the truth is unimportant and is belittling the person who is speaking the truth.
If I say opera is the best and you say ballet is the best that is a difference of opinion. If I say Theresa May is the Prime Minister and you say Jeremy Corbyn is the Prime Minister only one of us is speaking the truth.

Most treatments offered at this stage are psychological, rather than medical or surgical.

this is what the NHS does at the few Gender Identity clinics. Private doctors in the UK can and do prescribe and recommend differently including for younger kids and cross-sex hormones (or god knows what, but purporting to be cross-sex hormones ..) can be bought online by anyone. Parents who are being told their kids are in danger unless immediately ‘affirmed’ may not want to wait for the NHS waiting lists for NHS GICs if they can afford to avoid that by going private.

So it’s not really the case for a lot of young people that the medicalised and surgical route is gatekept away from them until adulthood. Nor that they will be able to access high quality NHS professional psychological support in adolescence and as they approach adulthood.

This makes it very urgent that people are allowed to talk about this ideology which as a belief system revolves around forcing gendered stereotypes onto everyone (trans or not) and is homophobic, and potentially supports making irreversible physical changes at an age where full understanding of consent is not possible.

It does need to be explored in schools, but in a supportive, gender critical way that encourages critical thinking and good scientific understanding about sex and gender on the part of the school students.

Where school students are confused or emotionally distressed or anxious about gender or dysphoric about their sexed bodies there needs to be greater specialist professional support including from NHS CAMHS who are massively oversubscribed.

We know that professional psychological support is really lacking for young people in all kinds of bad states and situations, not just those young people who (understandably) might want to reject the restrictions of gender and are attracted to the trans dogma as offering them something tangible towards achieving that end.

But pink it's a fact that people have different opinions .... like religion (we have a citizenship day on that too) - the message was to be tolerant of other even if you don't share their opinion.
I only came on to say that the OP's Dd may find it interesting.

Martini just to add that was the overriding feeling from the students after the event - that they could make their own minds up and had been given information to process their own opinions. They understood some of the terminology such as pan sexual that they hadn't previously and had the opportunity to question a trans woman. And they did

Piece, everyone can have different opinions but it is dangerous to confuse the word opinion with fact.

No I don't know anything about the OPs situation but I just wanted to say that they are not all bad sessions. Informative and non judgemental. One of the questions by the children was about the trans woman still being a man and it was the answer was that people had different opinions and that should be respected by all

PieceOfPurpleSky, You did not have a woman delivering the trans part of that lesson. There was no "she" present.
What would have happened if one of the children had pointed that out at the time? What what have been said and how would they have been treated if they made it clear that they refused to buy the lie that a man can turn into a woman or a woman can turn into a man?

In the q and a session yes. There are 200 kids in the year and this was just the way my group fell. To be honest they were both really good and I never felt uncomfortable (and I have in previous years when delivered by very PC women).

Piece so no actual women then to talk about lgbt.

It's education not indoctrination.

Some of these sessions are definitely indoctrination not education. I guess the OP doesn't have any details yet. But you don't know any more about it than she does.

cleared

Just a point. School visitors don’t have to be DBS checked as long as a member of staff who is DBS cleated remains in the classroom or hall with them at all times. As you were.

I have sat through sessions like this at school. Quite often it will be combined with a number of other topics that are part of the pshe curriculum.

The last day had 5x hour sessions and covered consent, porn and internet safety, contraception, lgbtq and then a q & a session.

Pupils found it really useful and the 't' part
Of the day was small - we had a trans woman and a gay man delivering the session and she was great at answering all the questions open and honestly. The pupils were respectful and all found it useful to get another perspective.

It's education not indoctrination.

Also what was the point of the government consultation on health & sex in education? they gone ahead anyway do whatever they want

Consultations are not supposed to be box ticking "public engagement" exercises with no meaning, but they so often are.

Peverse

From what I gathered from previous digging around, when they are doing these teachings they are bringing in one of their reps, it may not be case here but if it I personally think it’s a lot for Year 7 to ask questions given how the react to anyone who doesn’t nod along.

Do they not need to consult parents first about this or is this where the start with the parents don’t need to know.

Sorry not any helpful suggestions all I know is that I’m against this being taught to children.

Also what was the point of the government consultation on health & sex in education? they gone ahead anyway do whatever they want.

Most treatments offered at this stage are psychological, rather than medical or surgical.

You appear not to understand what the word "pathway" means here.

And as for not knowing who Mermaids are, why are you discussing something you don't have the first idea about as if you're some kind of authority?

You don’t need to be DBS checked to go into a school as long as you aren’t left alone with a pupil.

You are well behind the times, CaptainShark - these days GPs can refer straight to gender services (you used to have to go through CAMHS first) and anything other than affirmation is denounced as transphobic.

See today’s Metro for a mum planning a double mastectomy for her child the minute the child turns 16 - yet if it were a risk reducing cancer surgery it wouldn’t be considered before the age of 30 (because it’s brutal on the body, challenging pysychologically and because you might want to feed a baby at some point). You can’t even legally consent to genetic tests for BRCA1/2 until you are 18!
Why aren’t our gender questioning kids being handled with similar caution?

But we’re just old fashioned bigots, right?

As a mother of a kid with a genuinely life threatening illness who has to go to hospital all the bloody time where we see countless other families who have to go to hospital all the bloody time I cannot fathom how people are seemingly so willing to sign kids up to an ‘identity’ that has a medical-patient-for-life trajectory.

It’s completely fucked up and absolutely NOTHING like being gay.

I think your solution, although it will cause argument from the school, is the most sensible one.
I also would be finding out when these lessons are to be taking place and taking my child out of the school for the duration.

‘Pretty certain’ and ‘hazarding a guess’ is really not a high enough standard when it comes to safeguarding children.

I’m pretty certain that Mermaids follow the equality act. I’d also hazard a guess that whoever they have going into schools is DBS checked (I doubt they’d be allowed into schools otherwise?)