What do people think of this going on at my daughter's primary school?

[DoctorBeat]

Nationalism with some gender stereotyping thrown in for good measure? Girls bring in something sweet?! 😒

I think you're overreacting and that people need to stop bringing 'gender stereotyping' into every tiny thing. If you make it a big deal, your kids will think it's a big deal. If you don't say anything about it, the kids won't know either way.
They probably just wanted half sweet and half savoury, it could have been down to a tossed coin over which gender got which food for all you know.

I agree with you, OP.

just for information my son does also eat cakes and not slugs and snails

My point exactly starry one

Ok so now you guys have to help me think of what to send her as/with.

So, someone who is definitely British but not traditionally so, and ditto with food (easy costumes only a please!)

If she wasn't vegetarian, or a girl, I would send her in with chicken tikka masala but I guess that's not sweet enough...

It sounds lovely.

Jane Austen?
Emmeline Pankhurst?
Marie Curie?
Florence Nightingale?

I also foresee lots of girls turning up in Disney Princess dresses

St George was Turkish anyway, wasn't he??

Does she want to be male or female or doesn't she mind? (Appreciate that gender probably irrelevant given the nature of the initial post!)

How provocative do you does she want to be??

My daughter also goes to this school and I had exactly the same reaction as you.

I was tempted to point out the Britons thing on Facebook, but I'm already disliked by the staff.

This school recently pointed out on Twitter and Facebook that a particular child had received her pen licence because she forms her letters constantly
Not sure who actually writes these things but there are always mistakes.

Thing is, if your brain doesn't work in this special, apartheid of the sexes way, then ... you would not even come up with the idea of dividing the kids along those lines.

(Besides, I would never assign someone a random foodstuff to bring, because that's a recipe for disaster. You want people to bring something they like, where they can judge the quality, not something they have to pick out randomly in the supermarket because they never eat it.)

What is a school doing naming kids on social media like that?!?

But that's another thread for another day.

Is this of any help?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100Greatestt_Britons

And err, really sorry, but I have read back through the thread and it's not a vastmajority of posters who disagree with me. Many also find it a bit off and have said so on the thread - more than I had realised actually reading back.

Still wouldn't stop it being a worthwhile topic to have a conversation about despite your attempts to shut me down as being "professionally offended".

Doctor and Decoy - you should maybe join forces in RL and approach the school. There may well be others who feel the same.

Thanks decoy - I put a comment on Facebook but then thought better of it and deleted it.

What did you think about the "what makes you proud to be British" homework over February half term?

They are always naming children on social media, or posting photos of sports teams etc

How can anyone say this is going to be a restrictive view of Britain based on only one poster?

Vestal Virgin - my brain works in this apartheid way because of the insidious conditioning I have been exposed to all my life - to deny it is futile and unhelpful, but to acknowledge it and challenge examples where it is perpetuated means that over time things might change for the better.

I struggled with that homework, which wasn't actually for the child at all! My mum and Grandmother filled in the questionnaires with some good answers. I saw the results that they posted on Twitter and Facebook and they just seemed so, idk, safe and bland.

Re the homework - it kind of assumes that everyone is (a) British and (b) proud to be so.

Is the head a 'Kipper, by any chance?

Or did they get hauled over the coals recently by Ofsted for not doing enough to promote British values (whatever they are).

I just didn't do it at all.

Blimey - if this thread is anything to go by we'd be shot down I reckon. If the supposedly liberal lefties of mumsnet don't see the issue, then a group of small town Devon folk are hardly going to.

Blimey - that list is predominantly white males unfortunately. Which is a shame.

Yeah they recently got downgraded by ofsted so that must have been one of the failing points - clearly some kippers on the ofsted panel.

They are not all British. There is a polish and Thai child in my daughter's class alone that I am aware of...

I thought it was telling that my 5 year old when asked had no idea she was British, or what it means to be British. But presumably after discussing that homework in class she would have had those British values drummed into her rather than being able to discover what being British means for herself. Instead she just gets to hear what her classmates slightly racist grandparents think.