Please help! Gender not sex on a school 'protected characteristics' poster, just spoken to the Head!

"I’m interested if you think we should change the gender bubble in the future. Let me know your thoughts, eager to discuss."

So that'll be "yes, right now, a parent has complained and we'll take the posters down until it's done".

I think they're not so much fobbing you off as trying to pass the buck. But (if I've got this right!) the legal responsibility still lies with the school who buys and uses the materials, and not with the outside organisation who provides it. It doesn't matter how the airhead at No Outsiders thinks the wording might be understood by children, it's the school who are legally responsible for what the poster says.

And as a parent, you don't want the school talking about "gender" when they mean "sex".

It's that simple really. If the school mess up, it will be on them, not No Thingies.

Could you thank them for sharing the email and point out that while it's all very interesting, as a parent you still don't want them to use the wrong word for sex, and remind them that they are responsible for whatever's on the posters in their school?

Caveats - I am not lawyer etc., Sex Matters or maybe Safer Schools Alliance will give you a better steer.

Best of luck!

TWAW!!! Shout Nicola, Lisa and Yvette.

Unless they're politically embarrassing rapists. Then they might not be.

Vebrithien · Today 16:18

Sorry, meant to say that I'm waiting for Sex Matters to reply to me.

Yes, I got that, I'm wondering what they'll have to say to the school....

Yvette Cooper, who has always been ‘very kind’ has this to say about sex and gender that proves your point that you need sex not gender on the poster:
twitter.com/BBCr4today/status/1618532781595795458?cxt=HHwWhIC9haq_l_YsAAAA

Well, we're agog, waiting for their reply!

From her letter: *We proudly have the No Outsiders plaques and the posters around our federation of two schools.

A parent has commented that one of the pictures says 'gender' rather than 'sex' and all of the other 8 words are identical to the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010.

Can you help me to explain this to them?*

Patronising to you and worshipping to them. No wonder you are frustrated.

1. teach children the right language. Use the sniggering (if there really was going to be a big problem) to teach them.
2. Gender reassignment - that’s a much more difficult concept to understand. Can they explain that to primary children in as easy as sex in this = male or female (1).
3. It is the duty of a primary school to prepare them for secondary school - where they have said ‘well we’ll revert to sex cos they’ll understand it’. You don’t teach them the wrong thing so it will be corrected later.

Pupils in Year 6 often have access to mobile phones. That Scottish rapist has been in the news this week. They need to know that gender is not protected.

MmePoppySeedDefage · Today 14:13

So many times one sees the EA protected characteristics listed, specifically except with one amendment. Always the same one. Every time.

Yes, that's strange, isn't it? I mean, we never hear of Race being replaced by shot putt, or triple jump. It's almost as if it's intentional.

It's time for sinnerboys letter. You're being fobbed off.

And the person doing the posters etc is a child groomer.

This.

I was thinking of my child's experience of being one of very few white kids in primary school. As he was the minority in his school environment, conversations on race and racism had to be more explicit and encompass wider society for examples, but I think they were important. Similarly I've discussed sexism with him from young age. He learned that meaning of "sex" before the other. Shouldn't all kids learn that meaning first?

I think the term sex muddies the issue. It means something else

Well, yes. That is exactly the point: 'sex' means a biological reality (and protected characteristic); 'gender' means something else. Conflating the 2 is what muddies the waters.

and young children can read it and think it’s funny

If you avoided everything that makes primary school children giggle, you'd not be able to teach anything at all.

I think you could make a reasonable argument that putting up eight of the nine protected characteristics but not the ninth is in and of itself a potential breach of the EA. Might at least make them pause to think, if nothing else.

Th second lot of 'they' in my post were not referring to Sex Matters - oh i wish we could edit posts...

Sex' is the protected charisteristic and 'gender' has no clear definition. If the poster is purporting to show the legal position then it should say 'sex'.

They are pretending the poster is entirely unrelated to the legal Equalities Act though …

• even though it shows 9 characteristics just like the EA has, and uses the exact EA wording for all of the other 8 EA characteristics , however difficult some of those would be for a child to understand,

(and even though one of those other 8 also has ‘sex’ in it which ‘could mean something else’ according to the provider, and could be sniggered at by a child, and could lead to a child telling their parent they had learnt about ‘sex m that day..)

It also, by pure coincidence, states that we are all ‘equal’ on the poster.

So many times one sees the EA protected characteristics listed, specifically except with one amendment. Always the same one. Every time. I'm having the same tussle with a couple of professional institutions of which I am a member.

Why not go back to Sex Matters OP? They may be able to help you draft something.

Given they always change 'sex' to 'gender', it's clear they want to conflate the two, so we must resist it.

'Sex' is the protected charisteristic and 'gender' has no clear definition. If the poster is purporting to show the legal position then it should say 'sex'.

OP here is a screen shot of when Elsanore mentioned her D Husband inspired by you had had this changed at his school. Then I think she came back on this thread too later.

Wish44 · Today 10:52
Hi OP,

Today I was doing online mandatory training on the equality act for the Local Authority that I work for. It listed gender and not sex as a protected characteristic

Inspired by you ( and the many others on this forum) I emailed the appropriate people pointing out this error . Wonderfully within 10 minutes I had a reply acknowledging their mistake and reassuring me that they would correct it. This will ensure that thousands of La workers are now correctly informed.

Together we can do it!!!

OP I was mistaken about this being a school too but Wish44 had success with a Local Authority, inspired by you!

I wonder if @WarriorN is around? She seems to know a lot about schools.

To add to the list of words ( also used in the EA) which a primary school child would find difficult to understand, and for which the provider has not provided a simplified alternative in line with their stated reason for changing ‘sex’ to ‘gender’, (or even in line with their feeling children would snigger at the word sex):

gender reassignment

civil partnership

sexual orientation ( which has ‘sex’ in so is as snigger worthy as sex)

race and ethnicity ( I feel a bit unclear about the nuances myself).

What a weaselly non answer from No Outsiders, I am fuming on your behalf!

I think the term sex muddies the issue. It means something else and young children can read it and think it’s funny. I also don’t want Y2 children going home saying “We learned about sex today” when they actually really talked about gender.
I think gender as a term is useful when you later talk about gender reassignment. You have your gender but then you can also reassign your gender. They fit together – it makes for uncomplicated explanations and conversations further up the school.

How does using the correct term 'sex' when talking about the reality of whether a child is male or female 'muddy the issue' ffs?
If my Yr2 child came home and said 'I learned about sex today' I would say 'That's interesting, what did you learn about it?'
How does this sentence make sense? 'you have your gender but then you can also reassign your gender'
They absolutely DO NOT fit together and make for confusing and complicated explanations. Surely it would make far more sense to say 'you have your sex - the reality of whether you are male or female - and everything else is your personality / individuality. If you decide that you don't want to conform with the societal norms and behaviours based on your sex that's fine blah blah gender reassignment'

If we’re talking specifically about the Equality Act with older children and they use the term sex, I will correct them, but I think it is the concept behind the language for younger children that is more important – all different, all equal

Yes, we ARE all different but equal. Why on earth would the author of the letter 'correct' a child who uses sex when they mean sex?

Every time I re-order I do consider changing the gender bubble to a sex bubble so you know at some level that it is incorrect to use gender in place of sex then!

In the end I don’t think it matters. Some people are definitely trying to make it a political issue, I just want children to know that there are boys and girls and everyone is equal.
YOU don't think it matters and that it isn't a political issue, but it DOES and it IS.
Yes, boys and girls are equal in most things and should be given the same opportunities. But their sex will have an impact on their lives and that cannot be changed and knowing that there are boys and girls means knowing that boys are male and girls are female!

I hope that helps. I’m interested if you think we should change the gender bubble in the future. Again, the acknowledgement that gender is not the right word to have on this poster. Perhaps the way the wind is blowing is beginning to get through to those who want to push this ideology and they are looking to still have a business when the shit hits the fan?

I'd be inclined to escalate this as a formal complaint to the governors? Regrettably but given their involvement with No Outsiders (lots of evidence about their involvement in queer theory) and asking why is the school not simply following national guidance?
It's not up to individual teachers to change language that they don't like. Although it's apparently a "coincidence" that the only protected characteristic that's erased is sex, it is nevertheless significant that this is the one that's missing.
If teachers are uneasy / unwilling to use the legal name of a protected characteristic sex, then children will grow up unable to articulate sex based reasons for discrimination. Deliberately erasing the word sex as this DH is advocating, creates a hostile environment for girls and women. Schools should be explicit (in an age appropriate way) about issues of discrimination and give children the linguistic and intellectual tools to describe what they see. Sacrificing facts and accurate language in the alleged interests of "inclusivity" does girls and boys no favours. Schools should not be following the wishes of adult activist groups but always centre the rights and best interests of children.

A bit of a rant but hopefully there's something in there of use?

It was @Elsanore’s husband.

Here is the whole poster showing all the peach bubbles.