DS's school - deep in genderwoo

I wouldn't do that, you need to keep the upper hand and behave professionally and appropriately.

That said, do not let this lie, if you don't get a reasonable response within 5 working days then I would start the formal complaints process.

One time, my Scottish LA required all its teachers to fill up a questionnaire enquiring into our ethnic background. I was feeling bolshie, so wrote 'The last time someone asked my family this question, they put my granny in a concentration camp.'

[Not lying. I'm Slav on one side of the family.]

Personally, I prefer the state school system for many reasons. However...I agree with DeathRattleDazzle. If I were paying for a private education for my child, I'd be damned if I were to tolerate this.

I used to be a full-time middle manager in a Scottish secondary school. Quit 5 years ago. I didn't realise until too late what all this genderwoo was about. There are organisations getting into schools via the back door.

In my last year at my school, a class of 12 yr olds castigated me for saying "Ladies and gentlemen, you may leave."

"That's sexist!"

I had no idea what they were wittering on about. Turns out a particular youth group had visited the school.

I'm all for the change of mindset towards gender (mainly), but this is going WAAAY to far!!!!

Semi-retired teacher here. This is disgraceful. I'm certain that the school will say that it's okay because the children were 'invited' and not coerced.

It's really not okay. Children are used to doing as they're told when in school. This was a form of coercion.

I'd be wanting to know exactly who was interviewing and recording my child. I'd also want to know what is being done with the recording.

I moved my child to new school because of this, best decision ever. Although it’s not gone away she’s now got a lot more room to grow without the coaching.

This topic is too deep and won’t change in time for your kids.

Last week they were invited in to a room, one-by-one and with a tape recorder running asked to state their pronouns, to someone not known to them at all and quite possibly a non-staff member

That is absolutely fucking outrageous. I honestly despair. How far away from actual education can you get?! What is their purpose in making children take part in that? I genuinely don't understand. Are they making them sit with a stranger and tape record their disabilities? Sexualities? Religion?

Do you have a parents WhatsApp group or anything similar? You can't be the only one feeling this way.

My eldest is 7 and I'm just hoping this all calms down in the next 5 years. Not helpful to parents of older children, sorry.

You’re basically paying for your child to be bullied and intimidated. Is there a parental WhatsApp group?

Someone will be able to say for sure but I suspect there’s a data collection issue if they are collecting data that they don’t actually need to be able to operate

Helpful

Any sort of parent group associated with the school? Complaints always have more force if they think they will lose more money.

You're being too polite waiting on an email response.

Phone the school. Tell them that due to no response you will be arriving at X time on X date to discuss this.

I find the school's actions really quite extreme, the fact it is a private school is even odder as I thought they would be more onside as far as parents are concerned and I felt parents were more anti this agenda.

Pink roses, nice of you to highlight your belief that there are some children who don’t deserve protection

Creepy as fuck.

It’s a shame you say there are no alternatives for him because I’d take my child away from this school immediately. To think that you’re actually paying for this too 🤦‍♀️

apart from anything else, can you imagine the outcry if this was applied to any other personal characteristic?

Having to walk into a room alone with a random unidentified person and declare your sexuality, religion, any disabilities, etc. and have it recorded with no option to opt out?

there's a reason that when those questions are asked in job applications or similar they are a) optional and b) keep anonymous and apart from the main application

Is it an HMC school? They are terrible for gender ideology as an organisation. If it is, you could write to their general secretary, Simon Hyde. He won’t do anything, but the more parents who complain about gender ideology in their schools, the better for raising awareness to him that it is an issue.

Terrifying.

Hope the Head is copied into all this? They're the person with the ultimate influence and if they can see that parents are unhappy, are more likely to insist on change. Middle managers don't always have that perspective and can get into (pointless) battles with parents.

When it comes to pronouns I just skip and say them / they. I don't want to drawn into a public domain my views on gender ideology. But of course I don't have that right. God if I was asked for my pronoun it would be 'it' that would piss people off. I don't identify as my sex or sexual orientation.

Did you find out who the person with the tape recorder was, and the purpose of the recording?

Sounds awful