Template letter about trans lessons in schools?

[TheGoalIsToStayOutOfTheHole]

Hi, I have been searching online for this and can't find it, just wondering if one even exists?

I have been concerned for a while but my husband has started getting very obsessed with this trans thing due to a kid in his daughters class deciding he is actually a girl and apparently he is now changing in with the girls, which is distressing DSD. We had a very long conversation with her at the weekend and DH rang her school today to tell them that no way was she going to change infront of boys and its disgraceful that they expect her to (she is at the age where she is only just starting to develop, and only started her periods a month ago). It has apparently been decided that she can use the teachers loos and change in the staff room. Which is not really a good resolution but is probably the best we can hope for with the current state of things.

He has all weekend been ranting about schools doing this kind of thing. So I told him about the trans lesson thing that is going round schools that I have read about on here, where basically teen girls are blamed for the actions of middle aged men and such. Now, he mentioned this whilst on the phone to the school and they said they could not withhold any lesson thats 'on the curriculum' and would not speak about it anymore. but surely this is not on the curriculum?!

So what I would like to know, is if there is maybe a letter somewhere I can use to send into the school to withdraw the parents consent for these ridiculous lessons. DHs youngest son is very impressionable and is also fairly feminine and honestly, DH is a bit worried that he will be convinced that he is actually a girl rather than just being a boy with feminine interests which he is happy with at the moment.

I am not really very good with words as you can probably tell from this garbled post, and have no idea what to include in this letter or even what the actual name of the lesson is. So hoping that it does exist somewhere, as surely a lot of parents are not wanting their kids learning this nonsense..

I dont know of any template letter.
Under the Equality Act, sex is a protected class, and schools have to provide separate changing and toilet facilities for girls and boys. Obviously, girls dont want to change in front of boys, and as teenagers they are dealing with puberty and menstruation.

The schools are confused at the moment, as gender expression has now also become a protected characteristic. You need to quote the relevant regulations at them.

pinnacle-furniture.co.uk/blog/how-many-toilets/

www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/410294/Advice_on_standards_for_school_premises.pdf

OP,
Have a look at www.transgendertrend.com. There is some new guidance for schools on there.

Their twitter account below shows what the law actually says. These may be useful to share with the school.

twitter.com/Transgendertrd/status/934721590234841088

I suspect the school will be trying (quite rightly) to support the child but is likely to have taken advice from pressure groups which only focuses on the transgender child and not the needs of all children.

In my opinion, the trans child should have been offered the use of the staff rooms, rather than the girls not comfortable changing infront of boys having to use them. I genuinely can see it ending up being DSDs whole class in the staff room and the transgirl in the girls changing rooms. I think that a few parents will have complained about this today and as such, there will be a few girls already offered use of staff facilities. But once the other girls find out that some girls can escape this, they will also ask their parents or teachers if they can use the staff rooms too. Its just a huge clusterfuck.

More concerning to me at the moment though, is this transgender acceptance lesson for youngest DSS. Oldest DSS is a very sritical thinker and thinks the whole thing is bollocks, same with DSD. But as I said, youngest DSS is extremely impressionable and follows just about every trend going so we are very very worried about him being caught up in this tide of kids suddenly identifying as trans.

More concerning to me at the moment though, is this transgender acceptance lesson which is not actually about accepting that someone is trans from what I have read.

I am fairly sure other parents will have concerns, if their daughters have even told them as DSD was quite...quiet about this which is unusual for her as shes usually very outgoing so I think the 'you are a bigot if you disagree' message has got to her. She didn't dare tell her mother at all as she does not know what her mams views are on it (we rang her obviously, and her mothers views are identical to ours and she was basically outraged that the school could be so stupid). She told us after coaxing, told us she was very uncomfortable but also said if she said anything her friends may basically outcast her, which I agree is a risk in this whole thing. But her safety and such is our primary concern at the moment and she made it very clear (eventually) that she did not buy into it at all and apparently she has concerns about this boy as he has been very touchy feely with girls in the class before this random announcement of being trans, so she does not quite believe that he IS trans at all Such an awful situation and I wish schools would deal with this better rather than just thinking about the trans kids feelings.

Several documents here that may help you formulate a letter:

www.transgendertrend.com/schools-resources/

Thanks everyone. It should not be this scary drafting a letter about a childs wellbeing but I am worried that it will bring on accusations of transphobia tbh. Apparently when DH spoke to the school they were very 'off' with him. That might be in his head as he was expecting to be called a bigot or something but wasn't too bothered if thats was what they thought

I would second liaising with Stephanie Arai Davis from Transgender Trend regarding the comment that teaching anti science trans ideology is a required part of the curriculum. It definitely isn’t.

I would also read up on any documention / policy the school has regarding not stereotyping boys and girls and advise them that teaching trans ideology contravenes said anti stereotyping policy.

Can you approach the governors of the school? Probably best to do this after speaking with Stephanie from Transgender Trend.

Also, as another poster mentioned the Equality Act 2010 has a section in it that says you have to provide single sex facilities in certain circumstances.
The boy in question doesn’t have a Gender Recognition Cert and as he is under 18 the current Gender Recognition Act doesn’t have a provision for children in the process of transitioning, so he is legally as well as biologically male and should not be in a female changing space.

This appalling. Have no useful advice, normally I would recommend LA for safeguarding concerns with schools but I suspect they may have drunk the Kool Aid, just commenting so I can follow the thread for if and when I have to challenge something similar.

Thanks for this OP. I was just coming on here to ask about advice for school as well. I am Lead Governor for SEND and Vulnerable Learners at my son's Primary School and I just know that sooner or later this will come up in a Governors' meeting in order to develop our Equality Policy. When it does, I need to have my facts and figures straight. I shall fight the erosion of girls' safe spaces tooth and nail.

I don't even understand the thought process behind this. One child is uncomfortable and to pander to that child/parents they put him into the other half, with no regard to those they put him with.

Of course it isn't easy on that poor boy. But how the fuck can current thinking be at the moment to ignore everyone else?

Schools are trying to be kind and supportive to the gender non conforming child. They will have have been trained / got their information from transgender pressure groups who provide a mix of fake statistics about suicide, scary statements (children must start puberty blockers before puberty begins or it's dangerous), a narrow interpretation of the law (just like the Guides ) - i..e transgender children MUST have access to their chosen sex immediately and of course the mantra ' a transgender woman is a woman' - disbelieving this is transphobic.
Until recently, no one has been allowed to say, 'but what about the needs of girls (or boys) ? And as shown by the OP, schools have swallowed the belief that any child who objects must be bullying and therefore must be removed!
Transgender Trend is brilliant in that it promotes the welfare of ALL children and offers schools a way of dealing with these issues with sensitivity and care.

Sorry, that should have read:' transgender children MUST have immediate access to their chosen sex segregated space immediately'

I think there are two issues here -

1) PHSE/SRE curriculum. From gov.uk:

Sex and relationship education (SRE) is compulsory from age 11 onwards. It involves teaching children about reproduction, sexuality and sexual health. It doesn’t promote early sexual activity or any particular sexual orientation.

Some parts of sex and relationship education are compulsory - these are part of the national curriculum for science. Parents can withdraw their children from all other parts of sex and relationship education if they want.

All schools must have a written policy on sex education, which they must make available to parents for free.

Guidance from PSHE association says that PSHE is non-statutory, but whether that means the school can choose to teach it or not, or whether that means you have the right to withdraw your child I'm not sure. We need an expert!

According to legislation, all schools must publish details of their curriculum online.

2) School policies - on things like equality, anti-bullying and safeguarding.

All public authorities, including state schools, must comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty. This means they have to actively consider how their policies affect peoiple with different protected characteristics.

If there are things in their policies that, for example, disadvantage a child because of her sex (e.g. by failing to use the sex-based exemptions in the equality act) it's possible to challenge them by judicial review (sensible to raise a complaint first though).

We need a legal fund for this shit!

We've got a trans child in my school (primary). Basically we have to do all we can to accommodate the trans child at the expense of the other children. We took the children on a residential last year and the trans child chose to go in with the boys (FtM trans). We were told by the LEA and the local LGBT group that if any parents were unhappy then basically it's tough as the trans child's rights trump everyone elses. This child finished y3 as a girl and started y4 as a boy. The majority of staff feel it is too young to make that sort of decision.
We don't do any lessons on trans, all of our SRE is done by an outside provider and they cover the very basics of LGBT and parents are entitled to withdraw their children from those sessions.

I think schools must find this impossible to negotiate

basically it's tough as the trans child's rights trump everyone elses. How did we get here?

No idea mrghardy but we were initially told by the LEA that we shouldn't tell parents that there would be girl in the boys dorm because it would breach that child's confidentiality. Luckily our head teacher is sensible and vetoed that advice because he felt that parents had a right to know.

Hi everyone, a friend just alerted me to this thread. I hope to publish full Transgender Trend schools guidance by the end of this week which will include a section on all legislation laid out in the Equality Act, EHRC guidance and Public Sector Equality duty. I've written it and I'm now waiting for a lawyer friend to check it over for me!

Schools have a duty to balance the needs of all groups protected by different protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. They should do an impact assessment on females who are protected as 'girls' under the protected category 'sex.' Ask to see their impact assessment. If they haven't done one, demand that they do.

I don't have time to come in here these days but I will bookmark this thread and post the guidance here as soon as it's finished. It's quite comprehensive! (very very long...)

fairgame84 It's great that your Head is so confident. The LEA is no doubt googling and getting advice from pressure groups.
Transgendertrend has some advice for schools here that do try to take account of the whole school, not just the individual :

www.transgendertrend.com/schools-resources/

The more this is shared, the better.

And I needn't have bothered - Stephanie is here!

The guidelines (both curriculum and policy docs) are being written by trans campaigning groups and are being worded as if:

• we already have self-ID
• the protected characteristic in the EA has been changed to gender identity (because gender reassignment can't apply to children)
• the exemptions for single sex services/facilities in the EA have already been removed

And schools, Girl Guides etc. are just going along with it because they are not legal experts and these campaigning groups are being pushed by the government as the experts in this area. And nobody wants to look like a transphobic shit and risk their job. So when GIRES or Mermaids or whoever say 'the equality act says you have to let this trans girl change for PE with the other girls and the problem is theirs if they feel uncomfortable' nobody is questioning it. The more I think about this the more I'm astounded at the sheer cheek of it. They are acting as if all the recommendations in Miller's report have been made law.

But they haven't. There have been no legal changes in this area since the EA in 2010.

A while back someone found a link to a group doing 'strategic litigation' to advance trans rights and many of us were outraged. I'm seriously thinking we could do with some of that ourselves. We'd need to find some gender critical legal bods and do some fundraising but I think it's entirely possible.

Fantastic StephanieDA thank you so much for all your incredible work in this area