Does anyone have access to Jigsaw PSHE lesson plans?

Thanks, Little Cabbage - that pic and link is really useful 😊

Our school sent an email with the same slide as Little Cabbage showed above, as they wanted to put parents' minds at rest following 'scaremongering' in the national press.

Not sure what I make of that tbh, I thought our school head was quite sensible, but maybe not

Well, I've just emailed DD's school to enquire about which alternative provider they'll be using, as Jigsaw clearly falls foul of the the DofE guidelines. Will update if and when they respond.

Neither the Baroness Newman or the DfE have given a list of RSE resource providers to avoid. That list has been generated by a lobby group,

’Breathe’ are you able to send the school a response to ask why Jigsaw was chosen and point them to the government guidance?

I’m planning to go in rather than email, I think, as I’m hoping to catch the Head. I’m going to mention the new guidance definitely. The school is part of a MAT so I’m guessing they might have had a hand in the choice (and so the school might not know exactly why Jigsaw were chosen). Looking at the various PSHE providers, Jigsaw is one of the closest geographically so I did wonder if that was part of the reason.

TBH, just looking at the chart of topics provided above, I’m quite surprised at how much it covers (ignoring the Gender stuff). It makes me a little uneasy.

Breathe are you able to send the school a response to ask why Jigsaw was chosen and point them to the government guidance?

I think any plans to use outside organisations should be halted completely and a full consultation with parents undertaken before proceeding, especially now there is finally very clear guidance from. Dept of Ed.

Following this with interest as my DC’s primary school have emailed to say they’ll be using Jigsaw. They sent a link for parents to ‘have a look’ but it didn’t show any materials just the topic areas.

I’d recognised the name Jigsaw from previous comments online so I’m concerned. I was only concerned about gender identity stuff but now I’m concerned about the whole thing having read that awful Secrets lesson description.

The Jigsaw PSHE lesson that my older child had on Equal Rights was in the Celebrating Difference section for Yr 6. I have not seen the lesson plan for this but I will try and describe what my son says he was taught.

My son said that they were first shown a slide of people and the class was asked to find the similarities and differences between the people. They were then told that they were going to talk about equal rights. They were then shown a second slide with words such as sex, race, transgender, homosexuality (gay and lesbian), disabilities and pregnancy on. They discussed discrimination of someone who uses a wheelchair and who wants to get a job in an office without wheelchair access. They then learnt about Pride events and Rainbow days and about countries where people can be arrested for being gay. The focus of the rest of the lesson was then on transgender people.

My son told me that they were told that transgender is where somebody turns into the opposite sex (he said that he definitely remembered this because the class laughed - at the use of the word sex, I think). The teacher also said that a male becomes a female and a female becomes a male. My son said that the teacher also told them that some people have no gender. They were told about Caitlyn Jenner and told that CJ used to be a boy called Bruce and Sam Smith. they were told that it is respectful to use the pronoun 'they' when talking about Sam Smith.

The third slide was the story of Roberta Cowell and they learnt that Cowell was the first transgender person in Britain and that RC was a female in a male body. At one point the teacher started to talk about the surgery and then stopped herself and said they were too young and would learn about it in secondary school. The children were asked how the wife and children might have felt about Roberta's transition, one child answered that he thought they would be 'happy' for her. The teacher did not confirm or deny this. Another child said that he had heard that we all start off as girls and that some change in their Mum's tummy to be a boy and then said something about all boys are transgender and the teacher said that this may be true. They didn't talk about equal rights any more and the teacher said that they would return to the topic, although they never did because of Covid.
My son was confused about whether you could change sex or not and whether a girl could be inside a boy's body and also about whether all boys change from females to males.

I am not sure how much of the lesson was exactly what was written on the lesson plan or how much the teacher strayed from the plan. My son said that the three slides were definitely Jigsaw slides. It would be worth trying to get the plan for this lesson @LittleCabbage, although I think that it is an optional one and your child's school may choose not to give it.

I am determined to find out what that detail is.

Good for you OP, very interested to see what you find.

I can't see that Transgender Trend looked at Jigsaw but they did research a range of other organisations offering SRE resources to schools and came up with some horrifyingly inappropriate examples of queer theory and porn being pushed at children. Here's the link just in case other schools are using any of these organisations:

www.transgendertrend.com/launch-rse-guide-schools/

Does anyone have info about Jigsaw at secondary level? The RSE Review website (part of the Values Foundation - faith and family in education) has excellent reviews of the provision out there but unfortunately, the Jigsaw provision is "currently under review".

That whole thing about secrets is so dodgy.

@LittleCabbage I see that you have seen what I wrote about my youngest son's lesson on confidentiality. I did ask to speak to the headteacher about it and she spoke to the teacher who had delivered it to find out whether the lesson had gone as planned. The headteacher told me later that day that the lesson had followed the plan and showed me a piece of paper which set out the aims of the lesson and this included teaching the children to respect other's privacy (confidentiality). I have not seen a full lesson plan but I accept that the teacher was following the plan. I now know that Jigsaw PSHE have a charter/set of ground rules and have seen that respecting other's privacy is one of the six rules. I get what Jigsaw are are trying to do however I think that it is very dangerous to teach children, especially young ones to keep secrets, which is what this must sound like to a child when they told to hide or not reveal information to other's including their parents. I very much doubt that my child is the only one to understand the lesson in this way. I am especially and incredibly cross that my child and his class was both guilted and threatened with punishment (being put into reflection) into keeping things confidential/secret, as this is how abusers groom and abuse children. It is, imo as someone who was subjected to years of grooming and CSA, making it far easier for abusers to groom and abuse children and persuade them to keep it secret. I think that it is horrendous.

My school is also using Jigsaw (one of the threads was probably mine). I would be very interested in lesson plans. The curriculum I have seen looks OK but the devil is in the detail!

I presume schools aren't holding physical meetings with parents but they should provide some sort of parent forum to discuss this.
I'm very surprised to hear about the lesson on confidentiality, totally inappropriate. I trained teachers in PSHE and this is not what would be recommended, quite the opposite! Confidentiality was taught in the context of possible disclosures made in class, not to encourage keeping secrets. Some of this poor practice is often the result of poor teacher training in the subject. Trainees get about one day's training at university. I could write a book on teachers' misconceptions or crazy ideas e.g the headteacher not allowing the word 'penis' to be used

www.thurnby-tmet.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Jigsaw-LGBT-Parent-Leaflet-A4.pdf

This is a parent leaflet explaining Jigsaw. A couple of highlights:

Being transgender is discussed in the following terms:

Most people are not transgender. A transgender person doesn’t feel their body matches with their gender.

Looks like "born in the wrong body" to me; also clearly demonstrating that transgender people believe bodies and stereotypes can "match".

Let me explain…a person who was born with a male body may feel they are female, and a person born with a male body may feel they are a female. There can be all sorts of reasons why this happens.

School were a bit horrified when I asked them (a few months ago) how they'd be teaching my daughter which feelings correspond with 'female' and which with 'male'.

I am sorry there isn't something more definitive to refer to eg the DofE does not recommend organisation X because of the following teaching material...

Whilst the guidance is welcome, if a school chooses to use an external agency, it seems the onus falls back on parents to demonstrate why they are not suitable - which requires full access to the teaching materials.

Organisations are also re-writing their materials to fit the new guidance, which makes unsuitability more difficult to prove. There may be cases of agencies complying with the letter of the law, but not the spirit.

Good luck

Placemarking for the update. DD's school uses Jigsaw; they wouldn't let me see their materials during lockdown but said I was welcome to come in and have a look once the kids were back, which they now are - must get on with that!

I share your frustration at how hard it is to find out exactly what they're teaching. Should be easily googleable, but nope.

Hi, I've obtained some further clarification on the list of agencies on the list and how it should be used.

The DofE guidance does not make any recommendations regarding specific external agencies, but it includes the following blanket statement:

'You should exercise extreme caution when working with external agencies and proceed only if you have full confidence in the agency, its approach and the resources it uses.'

Schools are further discouraged from using external agencies by the provision of free teaching modules for primary and secondary schools by the DofE.

If a school chooses to continue with an external provider, the standard against which they should be measured is as follows:

'We are aware that topics involving gender and biological sex can be complex and sensitive matters to navigate. You should not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by suggesting that children might be a different gender based on their personality and interests or the clothes they prefer to wear. Resources used in teaching about this topic must always be age-appropriate and evidence based. Materials which suggest that non-conformity to gender stereotypes should be seen as synonymous with having a different gender identity should not be used and you should not work with external agencies or organisations that produce such material. While teachers should not suggest to a child that their non-compliance with gender stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, teachers should always seek to treat individual students with sympathy and support'

I understand that the list put together at the link are examples of agencies that have existing materials for use in schools that are not in line with the new guidance. This can be considered illustrative, but not exhaustive. With time, some of the agencies on the list may update their materials so that they are in line with the guidance. The yardstick against which to assess the suitability of any proposed materials therefore remains the new guidance.

The 6-7 one is quite interesting - I wonder how they pair "gender diversity / Assumptions and stereotypes about gender" with "Differences between female and male bodies."