"Teachers to tell children Gender Ideology is a contested belief"

Well that's great that you have that kind of relationship with your child. Many do not.

I would also say that any "adultification" should be addressed. Although that is a vague term.

We really have been let down by gender stuff and stonewalp on schools. Getting rid of it is going to be hard and needs to be done thoroughly. It's already been enmeshed in other things. For eg trying to tie it in with Section 28z

My older child finds it far less embarrassing to have sex ed talks with me than in a classroom full of boys. She also trusts me to tell her the truth, which is not the case with a lot of teachers, sad to say.

The facts are many parents don't want to have sex education talks with their children

Can you provide evidence for this? I don't believe it, not these days. I believe that may have been true in the past when everyone was very religious and religions were generally anti-sex and / or anti-contraception.

I think there need to be questions asked about to what extent any Teacher who is imposing their identity on and asking for compliance from children is doing their job i.e. acting in the best interests of those children.

What happened to people doing their job and no-one caring that much about their inner life or feelings as long as they did their job?

I should have added many children don't want to talk about it with their parents. Would rather have single sex lessons with their peers.

such as how schools explain to pupils that a primary school teacher identifies as non-binary without being caught by the rules

Why? NB has no legal underpinning at all. Even if it did for adults, the safeguarding of children is paramount. They must not have to prop up adults' imagined ideas of self. That is adultification.

how teachers are supposed to deal with questions from pupils about a trans-identifying pupil/parent without being caught by this or implying they're delusional, etc

They'll just have to move it swiftly on. "None of your business, now do you work" kind of thing.

Schools are pressed, aren't they? They don't have to choose to prioritise this, the government is giving them a way out.

It's not a question of "knowing better than parents." You wouldn't say this about ani other type of education. The facts are many parents don't want to have sex education talks with their children. They also don't often have the resources or the understanding of age appropriate information. Just as they might not be able to home educate their children in all subjects to age appropriate standards.

Because of the whole gender shit show and Stonewall etc in schools plenty of us rightly do have grave concerns about safeguarding in schools. I don't want to have education suffer as well. I want safeguarding and education to go hand in hand.

My dc are mid to late 20s now but I assume parents still have to consign consent forms?

In practical terms, I think this new guidance is going to raise a lot of issues on the ground, such as how schools explain to pupils that a primary school teacher identifies as non-binary without being caught by the rules, how teachers are supposed to deal with questions from pupils about a trans-identifying pupil/parent without being caught by this or implying they're delusional, etc.

Obviously, these kinds of questions should have arisen long before now, instead of everyone doing the emperor's new clothes thing, but I do feel very sorry for the teachers who've been told to do things one way under threat of being fired for not complying, and who will be on the frontline of reversing the previous position.

I think in the long run, this step will be a net positive, but as with the earlier social transitioning guidance, it often feels like the government forget that it's not as simple as "don't teach this stuff" because it's already been taught for a good few years now and lots of children and teachers are already fully on board with the idea that gender identity is a real thing, and have often already made permanent/long-term changes to their bodies and lives based on these beliefs.

Why do so many people in schools or charities think they know better than parents? There's this sneering attitude which is not only not respectful nor appropriate for the child's wellbeing (which should be paramount and requires a good relationship between home and school) but is also IMO flying very close to being a safeguarding concern. There is a lot of adultification going on, this is not appropriate.

It's a fact that the vast, vast majority of parents are far more likely to prioritise the wellbeing of their child than any teacher or adult in a charity or in school. It's just fact. And we know paedophiles try very hard to get into these positions. It's lunacy to disregard parents in favour of so called 'experts' when it comes to their own children. THEY ARE the experts in their own children.

I think teach the biological facts, teach them that humans uniquely among all mammals have come up with ways of preventing fertilisation of egg by sperm and some very basic information. Explain the law (sexual activity at X age is unlawful etc) but that some people do it anyway and say that anyone thinking of engaging in sex should go and talk to school nurse / pastoral / parent and that the adults in their lives who love them will help them and provide them with the information they need, as they will.

Show them some real life action videos about what it's like looking after a new baby. This is one part of PHSE that is entirely lacking.

It isn’t just being taught in RSE though, is it? It is being taught in assemblies in diversity, equality etc. It is being implicitly taught if children of the opposite sex are allowed to use what should be same sex toilets/changing rooms/sports etc.

Anyway, the main thing is to not teach things not based in fact and which might lead them down a pathway to unevidenced surgery and sterilisation.

I do think there's a debate to be had about whether the risk of overly sexualising a large number of children inappropriately early which may make them at more risk of abuse is greater than the risk of some children having sex without having sufficient information about contraception.

And I'm afraid that however much anyone thinks they're right on this, they do not have the right to remove parental responsibility. Too many adults seem to think they have a right to do so. They do not, and doing so is a huge safeguarding failure. And illegal.

Gender ideology is a Vatican coined phrase formed to push back against LGBTQ rights across the board.

Someone on MN said a while ago that gender identity ideology was a more accurate term to describe this current set of beliefs around gender, because gender ideology had already been claimed as a concept by misogynists wanting to ignore/discredit feminists who were pointing out that gender oppression is an actual thing.

There's plenty of subjects taught in school that aren't about anticipating children to go out and engage immediately.

I'm referring to your comment here:-

"is a criminal offence for anyone who is 16 or older to have any kind of sexual contact with someone aged 13, 14 or 15. "

@ArabellaScott

Of course it's a safeguarding issue @ArabellaScott . That's not the point. You're talking as if I'm saying "give 2 12 year olds a cosy bed for the night and here's a condom" I'm talking about education.

What? You raised the issue of 12 year olds having sex.

Why do you keep conflating this issue with children of different ages?

Both children would be referred in that situation and relevant agencies involved. That is a safeguarding issue for both children.

So if it's 2 12 year olds having sex who is abusing who @ArabellaScott ?

I'm not advocating talking about contraception to 12 year olds and expecting them to go off and have sex immediately. That's not what sex education is about

I'm very concerned about children being ignorant about abuse.

I entirely disagree @Ginnyweasleyswand. I think it's naive to think you can assess and target certain children. Who would have the experience to do this for a kick off? Plenty of parents still don't talk to their children about sex. Parents are able to opt out of sex education for their children.

"If we don't talk about it, it won't happen" mentality doesn't work. Many parents don't want sex Ed in schools because they have this attitude and don't want to talk about it at home either. Or don't do so in an adequate way. They often don't want to think of their children in these terms and children don't want to hear it from the parents. I'm very concerned about children being ignorant of the risks and harms of underage sex and pregnancy that not talking about it is likely to cause.

The law in Scotland for 13, 14 and 15 year olds:

Sexual Offences Act 2009:

'It is a criminal offence for anyone who is 16 or older to have any kind of sexual contact with someone aged 13, 14 or 15. It is also a criminal offence for both girls and boys aged 13, 14 and 15 to have consensual sex with anyone else aged 13, 14 or 15. This applies whether they are the initiating partner or the consenting partner. This criminal offence where both are aged 13, 14 or 15 applies solely to penetration of the mouth, vagina or anus with the penis and to touching of the penis vagina or anus with the mouth. People in this age group participating in other consensual sexual acts are not committing criminal offences.'

If children are going to be having sex at 12/13 they need to know about contraception before that.

Any child having sex at 12 is being abused. This should prompt a referral, not advice on contraception:

'A young person under the age of 13 is considered unable to give valid consent to any sexual act. This means that any sexual act (sexual kissing, sexual touching, oral, anal or vaginal sex) involving anyone under the age of 13 is by definition a Child Protection issue, whether the young person has consented or not.
If you become aware that anyone under the age of 13 has been involved in any sexual act you must make a child protection referral.
A referral to Social Work Services and the Police is inevitable in such cases, and it is very likely that, during the course of further investigations, the young person’s parents will be told that they have been involved in sexual activity.'

https://www.nhsborders.scot.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/our-services/general-services/underage-sexual-activity-interagency-guidance/under-13s/