School not using "girl" and "boy"

The problem is the DfE guidelines are fairly 'mild'. This government are trying to roll back what they have actively promoted for the last decade without seeming to be accountable for what they've enabled. I've seen appalling letters from tory ministers like Nick Gibb & Damian Hinds completely ignoring questions from women about safeguarding children and instead droning on about how wonderfully inclusive they find mixed sex facilities for children.

The government are never going to admit that they've funded unsuitable organisations to persuade schools to remove parental rights, celebrate drugs and surgery for teenagers, sell age inappropriate concepts to young children and remove children's boundaries and right to say no. So the roll back will happen at snail's pace to try to avoid drawing the attention of the deranged activists (just look at their hysterics at the bbc at the moment).

Thanks MrsOvertonsWindow.

I don’t blame you for being cross, it’s utterly enraging.

It's also why parental challenge is so important. If teachers are in hock to activist groups rather than centring children's needs, then parents are going to have to stand up and insist that children come first and not the wishes of self interested adults.

It’s also because in many schools parents are listened to while teachers are not.

We’re not all “self interested adults” who are “in hock to activist groups rather than centring children’s needs”.

Just seen this thread. Well done for writing/challenging.

The DfE us to blame for much of this. They refuse to accept responsibility. Their relationship with stonewall has influenced them greatly. They say it's not their job to police resources etc and it's up to individual schools. We are fully aware that it's a problem. And it's why it's also important for parents to challenge schools. And if appropriate write to EHRC and the education minister: safeschoolsallianceuk.net/2021/10/23/write-to-the-ehrc-you-can-make-a-difference/

That's very depressing MsGoodenough It's why we need the DfE to start righting the wrongs that they've caused with their lack of due diligence.
It's also why parental challenge is so important. If teachers are in hock to activist groups rather than centring children's needs, then parents are going to have to stand up and insist that children come first and not the wishes of self interested adults.

I agree the DfE could be more proactive. They can't check every resource out there but they could check the big ones such as Brooke, PSHE Association and Jigsaw.

I am feeling pretty despairing at the ideological capture of PSHE teachers as I'm on some PSHE teacher FB groups and there was recently a thread where all the teachers apart from me agreed that SSA, Transgender Trend and Genspect were transphobic and should be ignored. Every group that talks sense is branded transphobic and then dismissed.

(I am ValancyRedfern BTW. Due to forgetting passwords I've got different accounts on different devices right now).

I think the wider culture of Ofsted and the DfE promoting unrealistic expectations has been a big factor in this. Due to the implementation of such policies, outsourcing culture has been positively encouraged. And leaving the school responsible for checking companies that are all but endorsed by the DfE and Ofsted is not fair, considering most teachers are now meant to lead a subject, often not even put of their nqt year. Teachers are not paid for this leadership, nor is it part of the teaching standards until you are on leadership pay scale, so it's no wonder it's not been given due care and attention.

I personally think it's a scandal this ideology has been allowed to take root in schools, but it is hard to challenge because doing so creates more work for teachers. Haven't been able to wrest it out of my partner's school entirely because of workload related push back and lack of alternative resources or schemes.

Even those that know something has been up, like my partner, are reluctant to go against stonewall because it's seen as a legitimate consulting agency, not a lobby group.
Ofsted and DfE behaviour have contributed to that lack of clarity.

I agree that schools have been misled. The 2018 Equality Act guidance

( statutory guidance that schools must use) prioritises gender reassignment over all the other characteristics! It gives specific links to GIREs and Stonewall - no other activist lobby groups are mentioned at all - the only other links are government websites.
So since 2018, schools have been getting dire advice in the key Equality At guidance, from inappropriate adult groups pushing queer theory ideology at schools, all enabled by the captured civil servants in the DfE.

It's the Denton's playbook in actions. And with all the unions also dancing to the queer theorist's tune, prioritising child safeguarding and the wellbeing of children is taking second place to the demands of these groups.

@HipTightOnions
"And how do the “people with vaginas” know that they have vaginas?

This brainless PSHE teacher is relying on the fact that someone else has at some point told them that they are, indeed, girls."

Oh, this is wonderful. Thank you!

I think it shows up how many teachers don’t read the guidance. I’ve found that true of a lot of guidance and the education act and schools own policies. I appreciate that for teachers or teaching assistants it isn’t as easy to be on top of this with everything they have to do, but I’ve found ht, academy seniors, dsl etc completely blind sighted that I know the policies/guidance/education act/equality laws etc, and that’s very scary that they are clueless on this. All of which we’re outstanding of good schools btw, including some that are named on everyone’s invited. So I’m inclined to think they need marked harshly. They may need more support put in place to go with that but not knowing dfe guidance isn’t something that can be overlooked, even without the glaring safeguarding fails it leads to.

Yes, I agree schools have been fairly useless.
But I do think that they have been misled and that there will soon be a u turn so people following in good faith will be punished whilst those who pushed it into schools in the first place get away Scot free.

@BelleOfTheProvince

From what parents post here repeatedly it sounds like even when parents show schools the guidance and the laws and all the ssa etc resources, plenty schools still turn round and tell parents they won’t fix it.

Without ofsted assessing them what other power do parents have to ensure schools follow dfe guidance and our countries laws?

The number of schools I’ve seen or read about with mixed sex toilets who refuse to follow building regulations act or equality act and safeguarding guidance is horrifying. The only option when they ignore parents complaints is ofsted.

Many schools have been warned they may lose their 'outstanding status'. This and the u turn on core subjects, assessment for learning and other key areas mean that they'll happily find lots of fault in the schools and teachers who don't keep up with the merry-go-round of teaching trends.

This is a very serious but wider symptom of how Ofsted, which is meant to be a guiding hand, is failing schools and creating more problems than it solves.

As are stonewall in the resources section, despite the guidance being updated to get them out of schools.

But I don’t think there would be any response past the one ssa got from them at the moment.

Reportedly the dfe are on the list expected to leave stonewall, was reportedly in telegraph recently. And reportedly the new education secretary is well aware of the problems with stonewall and gender ideology, so if that’s correct then when the guidance is due to be reviewed again (is 3yrly I think, so in a yr & half would be due) he’ll hopefully tighten this up more.

[quote Personwithrage]@ValancyRedfern I was wondering about asking the DfE their opinion on Brook and their compliance with DfE guidance. I think DfE need to be clearer about which exeternal organisations they don't think schools should work with based on their inability to meet the criteria they specific "factual, evidence based" etc.[/quote]
Have you seen the letter on ssa from dfe? It explains why they can’t check the organisations on their resources section. Which is why they say schools must check them.

I think it’s fair to complain to them after schools, but I don’t think they’d ever be in a position to check every free resource and ensure they comply with the updated guidance at all times. So they would probably always say it’s schools responsibility.