I think school may be ignoring my emails re: gender identity

I'm pretty sure you've been flagged up in house as annoying.
There is little mention in your posts of your child, of their welfare, of their school experience,of the Covid restrictions and how this has limited their school experience.
This at a time when it widelyreported how kids of this age have suffered in the basics-wiping their bum, blowing their noes,dealing with their shoes, basic responding and talking to other people, holding a pen.
All YR teachers are running themselves ragged to make up this alleged deficit in kids' progress.

And then there's you, hammering away about a policy, insisting and quoting outside agencies, going to the top and not even taling with the person who actually works with your child, also, casting opinions on all the other parents, in one of your posts.
Im not saying your question is not important.
Im saying youve got your priorities and understanding of schools completely wrong.
What you are trying to achieve is something you ought to do in case of an actual complaint. In case of something having gone wrong, in case of your child coming to some sort of harm or being unhappy.

Are any of these things true?
You totally misread the role of the school. Number one is to keep your child cared for, progressing and making the most of the abilities they do and could have.

No mention of this at all in your posts. Presumably no mention of this at all in any of your emails or letters.
They will be face palming with every contact.
They work very very hard for your kid, and you want them to down tools for both your kid and all the other kids, so they can respond about a policy?
It's not the policy that counts as much as the individual teacher, and you haven't even spoken to them?
Get real.

Isn't it known " anecdotally" ( on a previous MN thread ) that Jigsaw have told schools to ignore requests for clarification from concerned parents?

The school is too busy to get into gender ideology. I am guessing that the sum total of their teaching on this is some people may decide to live as a different gender. I doubt they have spent much time thinking about it which will be why you haven't yet had a response.

Teachers have no influencing over the curriculum and plan for what they are told to teach by SLT.

Also, many teachers don't understand either the sex gender debates nor that materials their given which have been bought by the school (such as Kapow, jigsaw etc) could be an issue.

In some schools subject leaders have been asked to write their own schemes (I have for my subjects, I've bought in a couple of units here and there.)

Pshe may actually be being run by a young teacher with only 2-3 years of experience. RSE may be tacked on to that or again bought in via the LA or academy trust who may have organised an internal scheme or bought into one.

Also, nhs trusts can buy in orgs to deliver pshe and RSE training and content to schools. The nhs has funded lots of things such as the proud trust, if their Gp data shows lots of teens seeking help for sexuality and identity issues/ worries.

A young head may be clueless to any issues and even trust the teacher in charge to have looked at all the guidance themselves.

Ofsted said that they wanted subject leaders (many are not slt) to have a depth of knowledge of their subject, go on cpd etc and be able to construct a unique progressive scheme of work that suits the school cohort as well as follow the curriculum.

My own head has little clue of what I've put in our scheme for 2 different subjects (neither pshe or RSE). The deputy is in charge of curriculum but new to the school and starting to wade through it.

Then there's bloody twinkl. And Facebook groups where teachers share ideas and resources. "Has anyone done a PowerPoint on ..."

Quite frankly the Tories have created a perfect storm.

Kapow are a company that produce curriculum content/ schemes of work for primary schools.

Teachers have no influencing over the curriculum and plan for what they are told to teach by SLT.

Schools are still wading through the shitshow that was Covid, dealing with the new variant and extra precautions that now have to be put back in place.

It's the last half term, schools are sorting transitions of classes, staffing, parents evenings, reports, Covid catch up data.....all whilst teaching the children, dealing with the usual last half term tiredness/boredom from children.

Please don't keep chasing the class teacher, they will be busy enough right now with actual important things.

The DfE have said gender and identity is non statutory. This means schools don't have to teach it and if they do there's no framework to follow. However, there are guidelines they must follow if they do. For example they're not allowed to promote stereotypes and assigned at birth etc.
www.google.com/amp/s/schoolsweek.co.uk/cancel-culture-gender-stereotypes-and-extreme-political-stances-what-new-dfe-guidance-says-about-rse/amp/

This school (not my school) explains the difference well.
www.kapowprimary.com/blog/what-is-the-difference-between-rse-and-pshe/

Sorry just seen RSE is different to PSHE. PSHE is non-statutory

My school policy doesn’t really mention anything about gender ideology. The only mentions are that diversity needs to be taken into account when delivering RSE - religion, gender, sexual orientation etc all affect access. And no avoid gender and sexual stereotyping.
Does yours say something specific?

Schools are pretty busy places and this year especially.
I would politely follow up with the Head if you haven't received a reply.
The DoE guidelines are clear and helpful about how this subject should be covered. I agree that it is useful in schools to tell children at an early age about how not everyone is the same. Also agree that the teaching has to be reflecting the law accurately.

Seems the way forward for many progressive countries, and this is the outcome of the line being pushed here. Difference is bad. Must be suppressed and certainly not taught to the children! Don't then complain when religious groups want no LGBT and diversity education at all

That is highly disingenuous and you know it.

Difference is normal and good.

Telling small children that the fact that they don’t fully conform to harmful gender stereotypes is in fact bad, and means they are actually the wrong sex, but good news, they can change their biological sex and actually become the opposite sex - now THAT is bad

Schools should teach... the 3 Rs, to respect everyone and not be a jerk.

The ‘diversity’ teaching in schools seems to be along one specific line - why is this?

Hungary this week banned the teaching of diversity in schools - especially LGBT. Perhaps this is the way forward? Ensure that no child learns that there is diversity in humans, and making sure they conform to a hetero-normative socialised state where the boys feel social pressure to no longer be princesses, reinforcing patriarchal structures and misogyny.

Seems the way forward for many progressive countries, and this is the outcome of the line being pushed here. Difference is bad. Must be suppressed and certainly not taught to the children! Don't then complain when religious groups want no LGBT and diversity education at all.

Do we really want this in our society? Slippery slope here. Very slippery....

Governors must be made aware.

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/redflagsa4.pdf

Honestly I would make an appointment to speak to the head. It's what I did but I also rang the provider. The school had sent an email out with a leaflet outlining what would be covered, explained it would be delivered by the local school nurse team so I called them and had the conversation, no, gender identity wasn't going to be taught. Good.

The meeting with the Head was more about the fact they had the policy wrong (protected characteristic citing gender identity and hadn't included sex) which they hurriedly corrected.

The meeting was really good with the head, I got everything covered and he even asked for advise about material covering the topics so of course I recommended Transgender Trend. I did lean heavily into the safeguarding issues, it should peak their interest levels somewhat after all.

They can’t just ignore this and hope it goes away. They have to nail their colours to the mast, one way or another.

It is appropriate to include the school governors especially when raising serious Safeguarding concerns and because the school may be in contravention of Department of Education statutory guidance. They have ultimate responsibility for the whole school (pupils, staff and community).

I would assume that they are terrified of being on the wrong side of the argument and haven't a clue which is right. And sticking head in sand. I would follow up gently with any of the recent rulings and concerns as reported in the press and acknowledge that this area will be difficult for the school because of the range of attitudes and opinions and strong feelings - but that your concerns are safeguarding, education and good governance, which is why you are asking and providing information and you wonder what governance conversations the school are having about their approach which you hope takes into account all these same concerns.

Did you get any response @Changeychangeychange?

I’m still waiting. The more time that goes by the more suspicious I am that school have not got a handle on these issues. Very worrying.

I wouldn’t mind if they just came out and said “thank you for your email, we are looking into it and expect to reply by X”.

It’s the radio silence that is ominous, and quite frankly unprofessional.