School contact re RSHE changes - Stonewall recommendation

Stonewall are very much still the go to organisation for anything related to 'diversity' in rse. Outside of our bubble they are still highly respected and lauded. SSA and transgender trend have some great resources to help challenge, but it's an uphill struggle.

for any parents speaking with schools about Stonewall there's a template letter here
safeschoolsallianceuk.net/2021/02/14/is-your-childrens-school-a-stonewall-champion/

Which stonewall don’t.

So op- go print out the relevant parts of the guidance and then challenge them with it

It's ridiculous, because the government put out guidance last year explicitly stating that schools shouldn't use RSE materials that claim, for example, that it's possible to be born in the wrong body, or that a child interested in toys associated with the opposite sex might be transgender.

The DfE & civil servants to the very top of the DfE have been totally captured. Regrettably it's going to take the exposure of safeguarding scandals that can be directly linked to the undermining of safeguarding before they (who are of course divorced from the reality of children's lives) understand how dangerous some advice is.
Whether it's removing parental rights by transitioning children in secret, age inappropriate discussions about adult concepts, Stonewall promoted mixed age LGBT groups in schools, random adults with a vested interest mentoring T children in schools, emotive and careless use of inaccurate suicide data. All of these (and more) will eventually negatively impact on some vulnerable children but as too many in the DfE are an arms length away from safeguarding and understanding children, they don't appreciate the potential dangers.

OP, I'm surprised DfE are linking to SW. Stonewalls children's and young people's services page talks about suicide 🚩, self-harm 🚩 and how SW will help the school improve their policies and practices. 🚩🚩🚩

www.stonewall.org.uk/children-and-young-peoples-services-champions-programme

D of e have said publicly they do not endorse or check the resources listed.

They say in the guidance that it’s schools responsibility to check resources comply to guidance and that schools must not use any resources from any organisation that relies on stereotypes or teaches children can be born in the wrong body or that is a partisan political lobby group.

It sucks because it reads like a cop out. D if e guidance was updated to get stonewall out of schools yet they take zero responsibility for listing them in the resources and get around it by saying they don’t endorse or check organisations listed.

You just have to complain to school about this. Use the ssa &tt resources on how to address the problems with stonewall at school.

Personally I’d be adding to those resources the bbc news article about tw raping lesbians and sw response that compares orientation to bigotry, the bbc Nolan investigates podcast and the news articles that talk about how ehrc and ofsted have left sw diversity champions scheme this year.