DS teacher told him boys can be girls

But please be aware, some schools do not have a policy on this (avoiding it because it’s too difficult, I suspect) and teachers absolutely are expected to teach these lessons without thought or question.

That's terrible. For the teachers and the kids. I'm so glad I've branched out into other kinds of teaching and don't need to deliver PSHE.

It is definitely not OK, as a parent, to demand ‘lesson material’. The teacher reports to the head, not to the parents. And the head is governed by a board of governors.

It absolutely is ok to ask to see lesson material around RSE topics. The school should also have consulted with parents on the content.

"all boys and all girls should be free to be themselves, and see “gender” or “gender identity” as a negative label/constraint"

seen on twitter and seems apt in this situation.

TheReluctantPhoenix, it absolutely is OK to request (not demand!) to see lesson material! In fact schools have a legal obligation to share curriculum details on their websites. Any school that declined to share lesson materials with a concerned parent openly and cheerfully is way out of line.

Just call and ask, OP. Say your child is confused by the material and his questions were shut down and you have concerns. Parents are stakeholders in their children's education.

Teachers are responsible to the Headteacher who is responsible to the DFE and all are held accountable!

Did your DS get the impression that a boy who changed sex could go on to have babies, or a girl to become a father? That would concern me as a parent.

I would just say to the teacher you were a bit concerned because your ds thought they'd said that a persons biological sex isn't fixed and could be changed and he was very confused by it.

I'd just phone and query what was taught first. Presumably the teacher has to follow curriculum guidelines so was it their own content or were they supplied with it? Were they forced to teach it? The fault may not lie with the teacher in all this, you need to know where it came from. Go in calmly before unleashing all hell.

It's certainly very worrying though, at that age. By all means, children should be taught about gender identity, but I feel that 9 is far too young. I've just had to fill in an information form for my 10 year old who is transferring to secondary school in September. I was asked if her gender identity matched her sex. She's 10 ffs, of course it bloody does.

What the teacher has said is scientifically incorrect. Boys can’t be girls and vice versa.

This is what would bother me. When children are older and taught by subject specialists it is still concerning if they are being given contradictory information. But it is really not okay in primary school where they tend to have the same teacher for everything. How are they supposed to distinguish between a scientific reality (sex cannot change) and an opinion / belief. Even when teaching 6th form I'm really careful about making the distinction - I'm religious but also a science teacher and so if they ask about my religious beliefs I will tell the truth but always with a clear statement that they are MY beliefs and have absolutely nothing to do with science.

Well that's totally unacceptable. This is really not the kind of subject anyone should be teaching without giving it much thought. It's also the kind of thing on which a school will have a policy/party line

Another teacher, completely agreeing with you in principle, lazylinguist

But please be aware, some schools do not have a policy on this (avoiding it because it’s too difficult, I suspect) and teachers absolutely are expected to teach these lessons without thought or question.

Teachers should be challenging it, but if they’re not, parents absolutely have the right to do so.

InvisibleDragon - fantastic summary and explanation. I may use this as I’m currently querying what is being taught on this in school. Guidance came home to parents that conflated sex and gender, defined being gay as same gender attraction etc. I just want to know if it is being taught in this way to children.

It is not a Science lesson either. Science has particular standards it should uphold. This is not the case for a chat/English/PSHE.

Teacher here. PSHE covers all kinds of sensitive and important topics. Do you think it would be appropriate for a teacher to be giving factually incorrect or misleading information about sex ed? Drug use? Alcohol? Cyberbullying? Nope.

The teacher has not necessarily jumped on to any bandwagon. She probably has not given it much thought and is probably trying to ‘be kind’.

Well that's totally unacceptable. This is really not the kind of subject anyone should be teaching without giving it much thought. It's also the kind of thing on which a school will have a policy/party line. So either what the teacher said is the school policy (in which case I'd be querying it with the school), or the teacher is putting her own views across (in which case I'd be querying it with the teacher and then if necessary the school).

Bugger all. Not bigger all.

*you cannot teach children this any more than you can teach them to be Labour voters etc.

You absolutely can and should as a parent be able to ask to see lesson content at any time, but particularly when, as in this case, a teacher has used their position of trust and represented a highly biased, politicised, extreme position as fact.

DfE guidance on this is v. helpful. But schools need to start realising: you cannot teach children to be Labour voters and hate Tories, you cannot teach children that the only one true faith is x and that hell is a true, real place, you cannot teach them that the earth is flat or that the world was created in seven days and that this is a fact, all without mentioning the context, the other side of the debate and the good old RSE teaching phrase "some people believe".

Otherwise you are using your position of trust to influence and train children's thinking to your own personal, political views and there are a lot of words for that. And a lot of processes that should happen once it's done. This needs to go to the governors. I'd start with 'post this lesson my 9 year old believes humans can change sex.'

In primary there's bigger all reason to cover trans at all other than the "families come in all shapes and sizes" we already do for gay, step, adopted family representation in pshe.

Primary is about functions such as periods, body changes, wet dreams etc. It's practical and sexual content is only covered if initiated by pupils and then, usually only in private with a second adult in the background for safeguarding.

Anyone saying anything about sex beyond some people are gay, some are straight, these are the changes to expect is a massive safeguarding risk imo.

he questioned the teacher was told to stop being rude

#nodebate in the classroom 😳

To=be

I’d speak to the teacher in a neutral way (ie not go in all guns blazing) and ask for copies of the lesson first. I’d then decide my way forward, depending on what those plans said.

But I wouldn’t let my child to taught things that aren’t true. I wouldn’t accept the swapping of the word ‘sex’ for ‘gender’. Not only because gender is undefined but because it promotes sexist stereotypes that are completely contrary to equality of the sexes. I would be expecting ‘gender’ to be taught as a belief, just as religions are.

The teacher has not necessarily jumped on to any bandwagon. She probably has not given it much though and is probably trying to ‘be kind’.

But this isn’t a trivial mistake. This is crucial. Children believe teachers. They should not give false information on something so potentially harmful to the child.

TheReluctantPhoenix
It is not a Science lesson either. Science has particular standards it should uphold. This is not the case for a chat/English/PSHE.

I disagree. PSHE is where children are taught about the physical changes that their bodies will go through during puberty. It's very important that that is taught in a fact-based, scientific way.

That could include teaching about trans / gender dysphoria. But it needs to be made very clear that, whilst you can choose to live in a gender non-conforming way, you cannot literally change your biological sex. It's a very easy narrative to tell that you can take puberty blockers to stop your puberty and can take cross-sex hormones to go through the other puberty. The problem is that:

• children are likely to believe that doing this will literally make them change their biological sex
• it's not true

If you're going to introduce the idea of being trans, it needs to be made very clear that hormones and surgeries can give someone the superficial appearance of being of the opposite sex - but at the cost of not being able to have children; potentially not being able to enjoy sexual/romantic feelings; and with major long-term physical health risks. And (as in the Bell judgement) with the added caveat that these are decisions that you can make when you are older.

The bit I think you can teach like religion is that some people believe that we have an inner sense of gender identity, which tells us what gender we are, and that this is more important than biology. However, it still needs to be made clear that gender identity does not change biological development. You could add that some people have a gender identity that doesn't match their biological sex, which is called gender dysphoria. People with gender dysphoria may choose to have medical treatments to make their bodies look more like the sex that matches their sense of gender identity. But again, that this will not literally change them into the other sex.

One of the huge difficulties however, is that using gender identity terminology makes it very difficult to say all this plainly. If you want it to be that someone with a female gender identity is literally male (because gender identity is more important than biology) then it becomes difficult to say they they have a male body or will go through a male puberty - because some girls have a penis etc. Which is all semantic fun and games until you have children literally believing that they are the opposite sex and that doctors will help them to grow up to be a woman, and then slowly, horribly realising that they have been sold a lie.

I would approach a teacher if they tried to say that 1 was a prime number.
I would definitely approach a teacher if they tried to say you can change sex.
I would start with checking that's what they said and go from there.
Approach teacher 'DS has come home with the impression people can change sex ' listen to the answer. Then either say 'please could you clarify to the class as DS clearly didn't understand so others might not have understood too', or go away and word an urgent email to teacher and HT.

What the teacher has said is scientifically incorrect. Boys can’t be girls and vice versa. She’s been captured by the gender ideology and is now brainwashing the pupils.

Boys can do anything, girls can do anything, but biology is fixed.

I would absolutely be writing to the school ASAP. I’ve done the same myself. The head was conflating sex and gender. They won’t be using any more brainwashing claptrap produced by Stonewall any more.

This insidious creep of gender ideology into the minds of young children is very concerning, as is your reaction as a teacher.