To be terrified that my 4yr old dd is starting school in September

[scorpiogirly]

Is it just me? The thought of sending her to school in September makes me feel sick. No parent should be terrified of their children starting school.

I'm speaking of the new RSE curriculum. Parents no longer have a right to opt out. Parents do not have the right to demand to see what their children are being taught. Dangerous ideology will embedded into every lesson.

5000 parents are taking the Welsh Government to court and the case has been accepted.

Schools seem to be following a script when met with questions about the new RSE. Safeguarding, age appropriate. Who decides what is age appropriate for our children?

So its going to be filtered into every lesson, but teachers simultaneously don't know about it?

I'm mean thats a pretty big contradiction there, its not like teachers plug themselves in for a software update that automatically updates their lesson plans over night.

My dd goes to a primary school in Scotland, as does my childminded children, please don't worry, everything they're taught is completely age appropriate, my dd is age 9, and last term learnt about periods, puberty, they reinforced the correct body parts, in our school, at the start of each new term parents are given a detailed print out of what their child will learn this term in this subject, so you can discuss at home, (they so far haven't been encouraged to change genders or anything like that, thats more my teenage dds thing 😉) they have learnt a lot about different family set ups, how some people have 2 mums or 2 dads, and that love is love, which encourages everyone to be more accepting.
Children are encouraged to stay and listen to the lesson, as it's things they should know about, but are told they can sit out if they feel too uncomfortable, the print out encourages parents to call if they have any questions regarding what learning, and children are encouraged to ask questions too.
The whole class have the lesson together, dd and her friends were laughing because it was boys thst asked lots of questions about periods, and some were silly, but they got lots of information and it got them all talking (my dd already knew about periods, as did most of her friends)

I don't know why people are still claiming it is not compulsory. It is compulsory for primary schools. A quick Google will tell you that.

This is what I have a problem with.

And this...

There are many documents in the link you shared, which is the particular one you want is to read?

However this is who is behind the website.

We are Public Child Protection Wales

We are a group of individuals consisting of assembly members, child abuse survivors, therapists and concerned parents.

Please can you link to an official government source for your claims.

And this....

I know who they are. The chair of the organisation is a criminologist specialising in child sex abuse cases and has been involved in the education system for a number of years.

Sorry but you have a problem with consent from age 5?

@scorpiogirly sorry to be a pain, but due to the poor image quality on MN since the 'upgrade' those images you posted are really illegible.

You might know who they are but

1. They are not an official government organisation
2. You didn't make it clear who they were. The implication (at least to me) was they were something official.

No they wouldn't be a government organisation. The government are corrupt. It's an organisation speaking out about this issue and raising awareness.

The government are corrupt and you don't believe what the head teacher said.

Interesting.

RSE in the upper years is all about accepting people for who they are - race, sexuality, disability, the way they look etc and it might briefly get mentioned about gender (in my experience, it's the children who bring it up and are very knowledgable about it). I am speaking as an experienced Y5 teacher.

Age 0-4 explore what feels good and know they don't always have to comply. Comply with what? Being inappropriately touched by an adult? Children should not be taught to consent to what feels good or not. The answer should be no. In fact children know how to say no.

If I ask my daughter for a hug or kiss sometimes she will say no.

Is it?

@scorpiogirly That will be taught in a way about cuddles and things. No teacher in their right mind would teach that children should continue with something like sexual abuse if it feels good. The bottom line is only you and your parents when it's appropriate can touch you in those areas.

This type of consent is around cuddles from family members or family friends, or there friends. To help them realise that if a friend smacks you and it doesn't feel good, you have a right to say no and move away. If a friend gives you a cuddle and you like it, that is good contact. These lessons are built upon all the way to KS2 and it is very important because you will always get instances of sexual abuse in schools at some point and children need to know it's not ok.

Peer on peer abuse is also on the up in school and is a big focus of Safeguarding and the KCSIE document and this will build on that from a young age. Things such as upskirting or sending nude images, which are happening as low down as LKS2.

Give teachers some credit. We do have brains and your children are at our best interests. We also want to keep our jobs and our QTS!

And the one about gender identities could be as simple as "what's the difference between a boy and a girl". Everyone is entitled to explore gender identities. As you obviously have done to be able to say you are definitely 100% binary female.

I think it will be a bit better explained that that OP, that’s a very brief bullet point heading.

For example, you can’t just tell children no adults should touch them, it’s obviously a lot more nuanced than this.

Its a bit like the body touching version of bad secrets vs good surprises.

Depends on your interpretation surely

I would interpret that as they will be teaching children they don't have to consent to hugs and kisses but sometimes they will have to comply to things that don't feel good i.e. medical procedures

You are filtering words through your interpretation, I am filtering them through mine, a teacher will be filtering them through their interpretation, supporting materials and training and experience.

Unless you are assuming all teachers are raging TRA who are intent on changing the gender of every child they come into contact with, why react like they are mindless automatons?

But this is nonsense. All this is saying is that children should know that they can say no. Which you are already doing at home. A child's consent to something that feels good in this context is not about sex. That's in your own head. At early primary age it's about a child being able to say no to a hug - or to say yes to it. That doesn't mean they will be told that they should be saying yes to hugs from strangers (which their parents should be reinforcing at home anyway) but that they can say yes or no to hugs from parents, grannies, people they trust.

You've got so much paranoia about this going on that you're reading things that aren't there.

RSE lessons are also a conversation between teacher and pupil. It is not a teacher standing at the front telling them that x and x and x is true. It's mainly discussing children's experiences, their thought, beliefs, a debate, ideas, answering questions. It's very child lead and open.

Just like a teacher is not allowed to push religious or political views, they are also not allowed to push their views on such topics like this on to the children.

The point is to equip them for growing up and encountering lots of different people.

Sounds like the NSPCC Pants campaign to me - very good advice and completely age appropriate

www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/support-for-parents/pants-underwear-rule/

Wow just wow! What a vile accusation.