School contact re RSHE changes - Stonewall recommendation

Sure.

This is the 2021 - PSHE

www.gov.uk/government/publications/personal-social-health-and-economic-education-pshe/personal-social-health-and-economic-pshe-education

Here is 2020 - check out the bit about external providers.

www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-your-relationships-sex-and-health-curriculum

Here's the updated (in September) DfE page with the statutory guidelines and lots of additional resources.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education

For several years now the dominant ideology in schools has been that we harm children (ergo, safeguarding risk) by refusing to allow them to change their gender. All around in society we hear that male bodied people in women's toilets present no risk. The few boys (it's usually the other way round at this age) identifying as female tend to be gay and not an obvious risk to female students.
I do not remotely believe this is ok, but this is what we have been told in schools since all this started. Staff aren't ignoring a safeguarding risk, they literally aren't seeing it as it's been disguised as A Very Good Thing.

Believe it or not parents don’t need to get teachers on side to do their job of safeguarding kids, it’s on teachers whether they do this.

I have girls with autism. There’s no world where teacher trying to keep a job matters more than my daughters getting raped by a boy you let into the girls toilets.

If the people trained to spot safeguarding risks don’t speak up about them then that makes those people the safeguarding risk to children.

I don’t gaf who resents that or not. Children’s safety will always matter more and it’s cowardly to not take action to safeguarding them.

I’ve done 14 hour shifts in schools too. The residential kind where they lock up teenage rapists. If I knew there was a risk and didn’t speak up it would make me just as bad as the rapists we supervised. No way would I shut up and let the worst happen, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I did.

Bless you MsGoodenough, of course you must put your own well-being and family needs first. And switching off from it all is highly recommended!

I think the issue is the strength of feeling from perhaps parents whose children have been really badly affected by the harms of gender ideology. There really are some horror stories out there.

And of course the strength of feeling from women and LGB people who have so much at stake too.

Sending solidarity and best wishes to everyone fighting this in whatever way they can.

Thank you Leaf. I feel like I've gone down a rabbit hole with this thread. I am openly GC at work, I am active on the Safe Schools Alliance Facebook group, I have had in depth meetings with my own head and the Head of PSHE at dd's school, I donate more than I can really afford to GC causes, and suddenly I am as bad as the people who kept quiet about Saville because I occasionally pause for breath to consider keeping a roof over my daughter's head.

All I was trying to say was that, to 95% of teachers, Stonewall is not discredited and is still a respected organisation. Now turning my phone off for the night!

I would say GC views are very much in the minority among teachers. Well there will be those who might be if they thought about it, but the prevailing attitude is affirmation due to the impact on teenagers of doing anything else. It is nothing at all like people standing back watching JS and you won't get any teachers on side by suggesting that.

If of any use, you can contact the DfE direct here:

form.education.gov.uk/service/Contact_the_Department_for_Education

You could use an anonymous email account.

I'm sure there are GC teacher support groups, I'm not a teacher so not sure how you'd go about finding out, but I can make some enquiries if you'd like and PM you?

I am in regular touch with all of those organisations, both in relation to my own shool and my daughter's. I resent the implication that I am not doing enough. I work 14 hour days for the girls in my care. I also need to pay the bills and care for my daughter occasionally.

It is very true about speaking up. You have to be so careful how you word things and risk being accused of trans phobia. Our Head has asked us to refer issues to specific staff who have been trained on not conflating sex/gender. We have, however, affirmed lots of kids, even against their parents will.

@MsGoodenough please alert safe schools alliance, sex matters and free speech union.

As well as Andrew Doyle if you can 😆

That is the 2019 guidance - Op look up the Sept 2020 update for more specific guidance on what schools must consider when using external providers.

It’s the same as those who kept quiet about Savile.

In fact just this evening I've been invited to training run by Stonewall, and we have an LGBT+ club which is led by young teachers who have been on Stonewall training. I do challenge where I can and I am trying to calmly put my point of view across regarding the social transitioning of girls in school, but there are members of staff who would like to see me removed for my views and I can't afford to lose my job. The chances are the Union wouldn't support me if I did.

Being worried that it might make their lives hard or they’ll be thought badly of or worse is a feeble excuse for not speaking up about safeguarding.

It’s no different to all the people who bit their tongues about Savile.

I can’t believe they don’t know why this is happening though. Every teacher and social worker and nurse and so on I know personally know fine well what’s going on.

How can anyone educate children if you aren’t aware of what’s going on in the world, especially things that impact children’s lives and safeguarding?

They can’t ever read the news if they don’t know about this. Even the bare bones links on my iPhone front page to news articles frequently contains ones that are related to trans issues or similar.

Spot on MsGoodenough
Until the issues are covered in full by the Guardian BBC news sources that busy teachers read and with the Unions being totally captured (along with the PSHE Association) it's just not on their radar. Too many of them chant the Stonewall / Mermaids mantra and raising it feels scary to older and wiser teachers. Many young teachers have come through universities who have pushed the sacred caste belief for so long that they completely believe it.
I don't believe it will change until the court cases happen - which is dreadful in terms of the wellbeing of children.

Most pshe teachers are form tutors who teach it because they have to and they tolerate it at best, hate it at worst. Most will be blissfully unaware of the change of guidance from the dfe.

I know schools are supposed to follow d of e guidance (I'm a pshe teacher), I was explaining why this isn't shocking or surprising at all that they are still recommended. I'm on several pshe networking groups on Facebook and I'm very much in the minority in having issue with Stonewall, and I have to comment very carefully to try and get the message out while not being banned. Many/most PSHE teachers appear to have no issue at all with Stonewall, and are either entirely unaware of the controversies surrounding Stonewall, or think they are driven by transphobia. Many PSHE teachers argue that e.g. the Genderbread person doesn't reinforce stereotypes and is therefore dfe compliant. Hell even my Catholic school resources teach gender identity as fact, and CAMHS recommend Stonewall and Mermaid to schools for gender issues.

You don't have to be living under a rock not to know the issues with Stonewall, you just have to live in your own Instagram bubble, as most young teachers do. (And teacher burnout being what it is, most teachers are young).

It fucking sucks that d of e are such fucking cowards that they won’t come out and be transparent that stonewall are the exact reasons they changed the guidance. And it’s fucking irresponsible of them to link resources they aren’t 100% sure comply.

However teachers would have to have been living under a rock to not know this was why guidance changed. Some might not agree with it but that doesn’t matter, d of e guidance is schools job description. The only way to force them to comply is to complain.

Most schools aren't Stonewall champions but most will still assume Stonewall are a good provider of rse resources.