Statutory guidance on RSE and health education now out from DfE

That looks good to me. I’ll be interested to see how my teacher friend who’s a huge trans ally reacts to it 🤔

Principles in English law fall under understanding citizenship. The concept of the law needing to be just and fair and transparent enough for the average man on the street to understand and comply with is a long established one.

Therefore the point of how the average person would understand their biological sex and the biological sex of others is the baseline here. If we see this go to court it's almost certainly where it's going to fall.

Thus ideas about sex being complex fall apart - what your original birth certificate said is sufficient.

The only exception to this is where you do have someone with a diagnosis of chromosome abnormality - which is pretty easily spotted by mid teens. This absolutely does not apply to someone claiming trans status and has never had a medical reason to doubt their original birth certificate was incorrect.

If you have a biological child you know your sex. You know which gametes you produce. That's a reasonable understanding if your sex.

If something in law so universal can't easily be understood by the average person then the law is badly written. That is not the case here though.

Find some references to this principle and ask why it's not being taught. I'm fairly sure I learnt about it around GCSE level from school.

Schools dont need to have read it yet. They have a year to implement it. Rushing at things does not make for good curriculum development.
It's the last full week of the school year. Things are busy. I've read it because I'm curriculum lead.

I mentioned it to an slt and she had no clue it was out.

" For example, they should not teach as fact that all people have a gender identity."

I don't see why they even have to mention GI, it's a political ideology, schools are for education not indoctrination. The sooner schools stop shoe horning it into everything, the sooner it will all be forgotten about.

This guidance is statutory from September 2026, although schools can change their delivery earlier if they are ready.
Given that it has been released in the last week of term, we have read it, talked about incorporating some of the new material, and will review properly next term.

As luck would have it, I had a meeting at school today with a member of the senior leadership team and the main senior contact in the Resourced Provision that my daughter attends.

I've written previously about how frustrating conversations with senior leadership (including the DSL) have been and also about how the majority of my conversations with the Resourced Provision lead have been positive. I've been increasingly impressed with the senior leader that I met today. It's highly unlikely that he'll have influence over the rest of the leadership team but it's still helpful to have these conversations in relation to my daughter and how vulnerable she is to autism-related puberty distress being conflated with gender identity, given his position in the school in relation to my daughter.

The topic of RSHE materials had already been discussed previously by me with this senior leadership member, so it was perfect timing.

I asked them both if it was clear who owned the definition of "fact" and what went "beyond fact" regarding biological sex. The law on this is clear, as determined by the SC but what about the facts if some people hold a belief that contradicts what we know about biology?

I gave an example where a Christian believes that it's possible for conception to happen without sperm. So is it now a fact that this is possible in exceptional circumstances (via divine intervention) or is this "beyond fact"? They agreed that this was unclear.

Obviously Christianity has settled this debate some time ago and I would anticipate that the majority of Christians would accept that their belief/faith goes "beyond facts".

But I'm assuming that many schools, likely including the one my children attend, will obfuscate and deflect on what is a fact when it comes to (biological) sex versus gender identity. For example, it will undoubtedly be argued that even if it is immutable and binary in law, as per the SC judgement, there is "no consensus" on this being an actual fact in science. DSDs and "intersex" pseudoscience will be wheeled out until enough people are confused about what is an actual fact. We've seen it already with Caster Semenya and Imane Khelif, for example.

Obviously the public will eventually do a collective eye-roll the longer this goes on but until then, we're going to see a lot of "it's all so difficult and nuanced to understand what the facts are around biological sex", I'm sure. Let alone what is then "beyond fact".

This very much feels like a MumsNet working group, similar to the NHS one - to request details from schools, review them and report them for breeches?

I will be checking my school as their is a gingerbread man bullshit in their statutory stuff.

We have two members of staff with trans children so that could get interesting.

67. Pupils should also be taught the facts and the law about biological sex and gender reassignment. This should recognise that people have legal rights by virtue of their biological sex which are different from the rights of those of the opposite sex with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. Pupils should also be taught to recognise that people with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment, as with the other protected characteristics, have protection from discrimination and should be treated with respect and dignity.

If schools have to teach that people have rights by virtue of their biological sex, it is no longer possible to abolish single sex toilets in school (not that it was probably legal before).

It means that there's issues here with those who have socially transitioned and immediately get sucked into this.

Bee you have used a homophobic slur, please don't.

Most people haven't even heard the term gender identity, let alone think they have one. I know you need people to play along with your homophobic and misogynistic belief system but a feminist space is entirely the wrong place.

70. Where schools decide to use external resources, they should avoid materials that use cartoons or diagrams that oversimplify this topic, that could be interpreted as being aimed at younger children, or that perpetuate stereotypes or encourage pupils to question their gender. Schools should consult parents on the content of external resources on this topic in advance and make all materials available to them on request as set out in the section on openness with parents.

I like this. Bye bye, Genderbread Unicorn. Off you fuck, Gender Spectrum Barbie and Action Man.

yes to both your posts @MrsOvertonsWindow

The issue here is that not all teachers working at the chalk face will read these guidelines. And could bring any book into school to read to their class.

we do actually need to have widely shared books that are against these guidelines known about for use in schools

I feel quite emotional. I have been battling this for so long in school; I'd almost given up believing we'd manage to make a change.

This is so important. Not just weeding out the literature deliberately misleading children but removing the sticky hands of all the dodgy adult groups who've been able to sell themselves and their products to schools in the name of "inclusion"

A timely piece from Transgender Trend highlighting how Jigsaw (one of the main resources for primary PSHE) uses a trans activist approach to teaching gender identity. They've got hold of the hidden teaching notes for lessons for 10-11-year-olds and evidence that the resources are not compliant with the Cass Review, KCSIE 2024 and the 2025 Supreme Court ruling on the definition of sex in the Equality Act.

I know we get lots of questions from parents about how Jigsaw tackle gender identity so this is well worth a read.

Hopefully the new DfE guidance will stop this gaslighting of children in its tracks:

www.transgendertrend.com/jigsaw-hidden-agenda-primary-schools/

Secondary schools will also now include lessons on incel culture, including how a piece of content online can impact a person’s understanding of sexual ethics and behaviour, as well as increasing awareness of AI, deepfakes and how pornography links to misogyny.

^ Surprised to see that in the gov link. Does this mean that "sex work is work" will no longer be encouraged for broke uni (female only) students like it was a few years ago?

That will cone

It’s great that the TRA’s are seeing this as a win. That will nudge the hardline schools to toe the line without parents and women’s rights groups dragging them into line.

I work in schools and think the guidance provides the direction needed to bring back sanity.

Happy Days!

Rachel Rooney:

https://x.com/rooneyrachel/status/1945163028808315189?s=46&t=A2fpFNgDRyXF2d6ye97wEA

This being reported (by the usual suspects) as a win for trans rights as it over turns the Tory guidance that under 9s should not be taught RSE. (Not worth talking about but just thought I would add as a point of information!)

Misogynistic myths kicked out of classrooms to protect children
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/misogynistic-myths-kicked-out-of-classrooms-to-protect-children

New RSHE guidance: what parents need to know
https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2025/07/new-rshe-guidance-what-parents-need-to-know/

Both published today.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/15/pupils-schools-england-sex-gender-identity-government?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Excellent news! Hopefully there won't be more cases like the Scottish teacher who bollocked a kid for saying there were only two genders.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/teenager-who-went-viral-after-arguing-with-his-teacher-that-there-are-only-two-genders-told-its-not-ok-for-him-to-return-to-the-school-a4180816.html

Nope, it explicitly states that the existence of all queer people should be taught and doesn't do what the Tory draft did and ignore why we exist.

The bit about not teaching that all people have a gender identity is bizarre tho..like there's probably about as many people who believe that the moon is made of cheese than who sincerely believe they don't have a gender identity, but meh. Some people are a bit concerned about the 'encouraging to explore gender identity' in the same way that sec 28 explicitly was 'promoting homosexuality' whilst actually lead to 'don't talk about the gays', but that's contradicted by what was said earlier and clearly refers to something that doesn't happen anyway.

Pleased that they're not doing what the Tories were proposing by gatekeeping teaching about sexual violence (obviously age-appropriately). Not sure what to think about the 'role model' stuff and +ve conceptions of masculinity / femininity. feels like they were trying to get away from 'toxic' conceptions of these, but the wording is not clear.

Anyway, it's fine and faar better than what the Tories were proposing.

Schools must consult parents about RSE new policy