Please help evolution and inheritance KS2

[Lollygaggles]

I would be very grateful if anybody could point me to detailed guidance about this curriculum topic online as I must be missing something. My son's class teacher has been talking about the pupils' inherited traits from parents today. I can't imagine that's in the NC because of how families come to be nowadays. Any help appreciated thanks

Surely it’s just genetics? I got my blue eyes from my mum, my hair colour from my dad etc. It would be terribly unusual that the child didn’t have one genetic parent or grandparent they could compare themselves too. I don’t understand your comment as to why it wouldn’t be on the NC?

All children inherit one set of genes from their biological female parent, and another set from their biological male parent. As do the offspring of almost all other species on the planet. They can't stop teaching biology 'because of how families come to be nowadays' - can they?

What is it you’re not sure about?

I can't imagine that's in the NC because of how families come to be nowadays.

Have eggs and sperm been upgraded?

All you need to do is google ks2 national curriculum primary science.

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvhhvcw

Google is your friend.

Also, do you realise that teachers are allowed to discuss things that are not necessarily explicitly stated by the NC?

Here you go!

Evolution and inheritance
Pupils should be taught to:

recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago
recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents
identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution

Building on what they learned about fossils in the topic on rocks in year 3, pupils should find out more about how living things on earth have changed over time. They should be introduced to the idea that characteristics are passed from parents to their offspring, for instance by considering different breeds of dogs, and what happens when, for example, labradors are crossed with poodles. They should also appreciate that variation in offspring over time can make animals more or less able to survive in particular environments, for example, by exploring how giraffes’ necks got longer, or the development of insulating fur on the arctic fox. Pupils might find out about the work of palaeontologists such as Mary Anning and about how Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace developed their ideas on evolution.

Note: at this stage, pupils are not expected to understand how genes and chromosomes work.

Pupils might work scientifically by: observing and raising questions about local animals and how they are adapted to their environment; comparing how some living things are adapted to survive in extreme conditions, for example, cactuses, penguins and camels. They might analyse the advantages and disadvantages of specific adaptations, such as being on 2 feet rather than 4, having a long or a short beak, having gills or lungs, tendrils on climbing plants, brightly coloured and scented flowers.

Is the issue that many families no longer have both biological parents present?

If that's what you meant, it doesn't change the biology behind the children.

If you are adopted you will pick up social traits from your parents but your biology is still down to the people who conceived you.

If you think inheritance as a topic will upset your child, you need to tell the teacher so they can decide how to phrase things.

Of course, science is science and it must be changed or silenced because of hurt feelings.

I don't understand your phrase "how families come to be nowadays".

It's on the national curriculum. It has to be taught.

Sorry for the delay in responding. I am going to read everyone's posts carefully, thank you and then come back. I was upset when I first posted, so I probably didn't make sense.
I know that evolution and inheritance are taught. I've looked online at the NC and seen the examples of plants and animals used. I just imagined that if you were talking about this as a teacher, you would be sensitive enough not to put children on the spot and ask them about their personal experience.
My son is donor conceived and so disregarding the epigenetics evidence, he shares none of my genetic material. He was asked to talk about what physical characteristics he'd inherited from me and his dad. We have always been open about his donor roots, so he chatted away about the donor lady quite happily (which is great) but this raised all sorts of questions in class that he then had to defend himself against and the teacher, in her attempts to explain to the class, made more and more of it until he was confused and upset.

At pick up, I was beckoned into reception where the teacher explained that DS had talked about coming from a donor egg and she wanted to tell me. This was in an open space with other staff and kids about. I just felt we could have gone somewhere private and I was a bit ambushed by it all and got upset as well.
Anyway, a long winded way of finding out from you lovely folk whether this particular lesson was necessary to follow NC, or whether this was her interpretation and choice.

Thank you.

A child should never have to defend themselves about their genetic roots. My friends are lesbians and their son was conceived by a sperm donor (who is not in their life). I can now see why you were upset by it but surely if you are happy for it to be acknowledged, this is a great opportunity to educate. Kids are ok with same sex couples until a grown up says it’s wrong. The kids in your child’s class should also be ok with accepting what your DC told them. It has come out of the blue, I am guessing the teacher didn’t know the background etc. I can understand how this has hit you for six.

The science still stands but it sounds like there’s a bit of PHSE that needs to go alongside this. Work with your teacher on this one - I hope you will be pleasantly surprised how this can be turned around.

Thank you for your reply. It's hard for me to articulate the following, so if I do a bad job, please bear with me.
I thought that the reason the examples of plants and animals were given in the NC, was to avoid this exact type of scenario where children, as individuals, were under the spotlight. I am not happy that something intensely private and difficult for me is now going to be common knowledge amongst other kids and parents. Of course it's DS's information to share and maybe it would have come out in other circumstances anyway.
Perhaps I'm overreacting. DS isn't bothered at all (or wasn't) about his conception. But now is dealing with peers telling him I'm not his "real" Mum. I'm bothered by that. He is on the spectrum and so is not brilliant at reading all situations appropriately. So maybe I feel powerfully because of everything combined.
I guess I feel like this didn't need to happen. I am distressed, DS is distressed and I feel like the teacher did a crappy job. I don't really want my awful fertility struggle to be a talking point or really a learning opportunity.

Again, just rambling really. But I have read all of your posts now. Thank you again.

And just as a postscript. to make it perfectly clear, it's not any question about teaching the subject as it is evidenced in the NC. It's about whether this particular lesson was a good way to do it. I didn't know whether I was missing something and this personal family tree characteristics approach was the norm.

Our school puts the curriculum for the term on their class page so you know what will be covered. I think you have the added complication of his autism so didn't necessarily navigate the situation as easily as another child. Genetic inheritance certainly was discussed at my school up to and including GCSEs using my family as an example but that was many years ago. I'm presuming you didn't put donor child on the school information form as why would you he's your son.
My son has a few adopted children in his year so I guess it's a case finding a way to navigate it together.

Did the teacher know his background though? If not I don't think she can be blamed for something she didn't know about - might have been useful for you to have a word with her if you knew they were doing sex education at some point in the academic year. Also, if you didn't want your son to tell his friends, then you should have told him this - again the teacher can't be blamed if your son decides to tell them something you have not told him must be kept a secret.
If your son isn't bothered then you need to think why you are upset. Is it because you worry how people will see you? I can understand this as I went through many cycles of ICSI myself to have children, and for some years I didn't tell people as I felt it I had been through enough already.

The school need to stamp on any teasing immediately, that's absolutely unacceptable.

It could have been handled better but it does sound like the teacher was blindsided and panicked. She should have moved the conversation on as soon as it was clear that it was getting out of hand.

Op I think you might benefit from looking at the similar threads on the adoption board. This happens a lot to adc and many adc also have sn including asd.

IRC there was some good advice about raising this at the start of the year with class teachers, so staff are aware from the start.

Fwiw when I teach inherited characteristics I tend to give examples and then ask for examples by hands up approach, rather than picking myself. If they don't know or don't want to share, they won't put their hand up.

However, I'm a secondary teacher so teach this very often to many different groups so you quickly learn how best to handle it with each group.

Thank you all for your help and suggestions. I think the teacher had been feeling really bad about it, because she apologised profusely to DH at drop off this morning. I know it's something I need to navigate. I've been trying to for 10 years and mostly do ok. Just felt raw and bloody this time and needed to let it out on here I suppose.

Thanks again.

@Lollygaggles it sounds like you’ve done a great job of being open with ds about it and of course it will be really hard for you

Sometimes you do have to be open and tell school things that they just won’t know otherwise. We have a son who was stillborn 12 years ago. I don’t particularly share that information around but we did have to talk to my daughter’s school which caused her and us upset but could have been avoided should we have let them know.

Monday, I'm so very sorry to hear about your son. That's heartbreaking.

The thing is, looking at plants or even animals and what they inherited from their parents isn’t that interesting or obvious to children. That plant has blue flowers and so does it’s offspring. That dog has black fur and so have the puppies. But children LOVE saying what they share with their parents and looking for similarities. The subject matter is absolutely how I’d have taught this lesson

I guess it comes down to - was the teacher aware of your sons background, and if not, why not? Does anyone at the school know? If the teacher knew and essentially made him talk about it publicly that’s not great. More likely, she didn’t know or forgot. If you’ve chosen not to tell the school that of course is your choice, but if your son knows you have to be prepared that it will come out and the school can’t handle it best if they don’t know the background. If the teacher knew, they could have tweaked the lesson or had a quiet word with you/your son beforehand. I suspect most likely they knew, forgot, and are now embarrassed and upset that they’ve caused upset. I’m sure they didn’t mean to do it the way they did.

Essentially though, the science has to be taught and I don’t think the teaching topic itself was an issue here.