Compulsory trans lessons in primary schools: what will this involve?

[Lumene]

Does anyone know who will be teaching or writing the trans part of this curriculum and what it will cover?

Given the cod science and lack of/outright hostility to safeguarding concerns of many of the lobby groups who have been teaching in schools I am really concerned about this.

What does the government think primary school children need to know about trans issues and for what purpose? Will they consult with organisations such as Transgender Trend, WPUK, FPFW?

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/gay-and-trans-lessons-for-primary-schools-7nd8tgqcw

Thanks Rowantrees. When Baroness Barker was described as a Lib Dem all became clear. The Lib Dems, that party of haemorrhaging support and handful of MPs who none the less think it a great vote winning strategy to tell the vast majority of women that they ‘aren’t wanted in the Lib Dems’ (Lynne Featherstone) because they dare to suggest that housing male rapists in women’s prisons or allowing men to take part in women’s sport if they say they are women is somehow bigoted. Oh yes and they also have an MP who us a mind reader! Layla ‘I need only look into someone’s eyes, their souls, to know if they are male or female’ Moran. I wonder why, with MPs like that, they aren’t doing better in the polls!

There's a very powerful & influential group of TRAs in the LibDems who have been there for a long time.

Silentcrow interesting comment. If she is hoping to suppress the Transgendertrend materials she will have to explain why since they were runners up for the Maddox prize given for those standing up for objective fact based science in the face of opposition.

Mind you given their MPs (see above) believe they can see souls maybe she’s not bothered with facts?

TRAs have been determined to suppress Transgender Trend's school kit, going to extra-ordinary lengths.

Lumene
Consent is used with its broadest meaning. For primary it's about getting on with each other, learning how to negotiate competing wishes, learning how to avoid bullying, how to be assertive and so on. Hopefully that gives children some tools to use if they are abused for example. But it doesn't relate to sexual relationships

In terms of consent, medics recognise that children can consent to some things - like medical treatment below the age of consent - Fraser competent it's called and professionals can assess whether children are old enough to give informed consent for certain issues - which parent to reside with, certain drug treatments and so on. But NOT for sexual relationships where the law is clear that children cannot consent.

However, some sort of miracle happens in relation to changing sex and apparently there are no issues with the youngest of children deciding they are in the wrong body and trans activists argue with no sense of shame that these children must have urgent access to hormone blockers and surgery as young as possible - cos these children totally understand all the life long implications of medication and surgery even when they're too young to get a tattoo.

TRAs have been determined to suppress Transgender Trend's school kit, going to extra-ordinary lengths.

I was told by the PSHE consultants used by our LEA that the TGT school pack contravened the Equality Act and therefore couldn’t be shared with colleagues.

Obviously, I ignored that “advice”!

I was told by the PSHE consultants used by our LEA that the TGT school pack contravened the Equality Act and therefore couldn’t be shared with colleagues.

It would be interesting to know who advised the PSHE consultants.
Stonewall, Mermaids?

May 2018 Guardian
'Schools pulled into row over helping transgender children
As more teens come out as trans, experts clash over how schools should help'
(extract)
Stephanie Davies-Arai, a parenting adviser, launched the Transgender Trend resource pack in February half-term, thinking it would barely get noticed. Instead, she says: “It just blew up”. The LGBT lobby group Stonewall accused Transgender Trend, the organisation Davies-Arai set up two-and-a-half years ago, of spreading “damaging myths, panic and confusion”, and advised local authorities not to use the pack. On Twitter, people piled in, with one describing the pack (which had been checked by lawyers) as a “modern edition of Mein Kampf”.

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Davies-Arai says she took an interest in the subject because as a child she had felt herself to be a boy, and she didn’t think it was a good idea to label children like her as transgender because she believes that in some cases, these feelings resolve naturally by the end of adolescence.

While the Allsorts advice states that “trans pupils or students should have access to the changing room that corresponds to their gender identity” and that in PE lessons, students “should be enabled to participate in the activity which corresponds to their gender identity if this is what they request”, Davies-Arai argues that shared changing rooms present difficulties for some girls. Few teenage girls will be willing to admit that they feel uncomfortable sharing a changing room with a biologically male student, she says.

She points out that the technical guidance on the Equality Act for schools suggests offering students “private changing facilities, such as the staff changing room or another suitable space” – the approach taken at Miles’s school.

Susie Green, CEO of the charity Mermaids, disagrees, saying the debate about single-sex toilets seems “engineered to whip up fear” and is equivalent to “arguing people of colour shouldn’t be allowed to use the same toilets as white people in case they make them dirty”. (continues)
www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/15/transgender-row-teachers-afraid-challenge-breast-binding

It would be interesting to know who advised the PSHE consultants.
Stonewall, Mermaids?

Good question. In our communications the lead officer recommended the Brighton and Hove schools pack as a valuable resource for schools to use . She also delivered training about supporting trans students which referenced Stonewall and Mermaids, and quoted the 40% suicide figure. But whether the consultants as an organisation were trained by them, I have no idea.

From the new draft guidance for RSE:

31. Schools should be alive to issues such as everyday sexism, misogyny, homophobia and gender stereotypes and take positive action to build a culture where these are not tolerated, and any occurrences are identified and tackled.

75. Sexual orientation and gender identity should be explored at a timely point and in a clear, sensitive and respectful manner.

How do you teach about gender identity without invoking gender stereotypes, which it says should not be tolerated?

Ooh, point 31 there is great thanks oldcrone. Gender identity can only be taught as a belief structure then can't it? No jelly babies!

And wandering into ‘if you are a man - you’re a woman if you say so, therefore should have access to woman only spaces’ territory is a bit worrying.

Bugger ‘gender’ - we should be over that by now. It’s sex that is the issue.

Gender critical primary school governor, supply teacher and parent of a child who went through a real phase of being upset at the realisation she wasn't going to ever be a boy last year (then she settled on defining herself as Robodog from the Paw Patrol for a good few months instead). She has had terrible issues being socially excluded by a lot of the girls and her understanding can be immature at times - she'd be prime pickings if this nonsense started younger.

I'll be robustly challenging it when it appears in the school I'm a governor at - but it's always the tightrope because you're fearful of being denounced as a bigot for your thoughtcrime. I think there's a lot of teachers who will hate having to cover this and will just try to tone it as far down into the "like what the fuck you like, be whoever you are and you're bloody well fabulous as you ARE" realm of things as they possibly can do while keeping their heads below the parapet. The consequences of speaking out when you've got your own family to feed and need your career to do that are too much for many to afford to do anything else.

Hex are there any guidelines you can call upon via being a governor? Is there a governor with responsibility for that area? Can you be it?

In my opinion, the word gender should not be used unless with the word stereotype is after it.

75. Sexual orientation and gender identity stereotypes should be explored at a timely point and in a clear, sensitive and respectful manner.

Boils my piss it's bunged in with sexual orientation. This is a much more important topic for young children as a significant number of children have single sex parents these days.

If it's taught alongside it, it severely confuses matters.

Not looked at the whole doc yet. Looking forward to it.

Ordering transgender trend pack today. Should have done ages ago.

"Ordering transgender trend pack today."

Yes to this. Much of the proposed RSE curriculum is good - parents/carers shouldn't be able to prevent their children having factual and timely information about periods, same sex relationships, sexting, pornography, DV and mental health.

More useful to focus on what is being taught about 'gender identity' and trans than object to the whole proposals.

as a significant number of children have single sex parents these days

Haven’t they all?

I'm hoping that, as shown by DD's critical analysis (read: rejection) of the C of E dogma that has been shoved down her throat since she was 4 at her school (only place with spaces when we moved was a VA school), she will approach these lessons with a similarly open mind.

I've gently been getting my point across to her for some time now - so she gets it to an extent, and I'll continue to do so.

And WTF is a trans relationship? Trans has nothing to do with sexual preference.

I'm sure that lots of GC teachers will tone it down. The problem for parents is that it is impossible to know what exactly will be taught, when and by whom.

I would feel obliged to withdraw a GNC primary school child from school completely. So objectively dangerous are the potential consequences of suggesting that it is possible to be born in the wrong body (puberty blockers, binders, dangers to MH, pathway to sterility at a very young age). Also the dangers of indoctrinating their peer group to believe the same thing and encourage them down that path.

I have no objection to genderism being taught in secondary RE. It is ridiculous that this particular belief system is being presented as fact in state primary schools.

From the Government Response to RSE Consultation

30. There were differing views as to when pupils should be taught about LGBT relationships: those respondents who disagreed with the closed question were particularly likely to mention the topic of gender identity and sexuality and were largely in opposition to its teaching.

There are a few more mentions of gender identity in the response, and each time they say 'gender identity and sexuality' as though the people objecting to the teaching of gender identity ideology are also opposed to teaching about LGB relationships. Presumably they will have had some responses in which this is the case, but their inability to see a difference between teaching gender identity ideology as fact and teaching about same sex relationships is worrying.

Thanks feministfairy that makes more sense.

I was told by the PSHE consultants used by our LEA that the TGT school pack contravened the Equality Act and therefore couldn’t be shared with colleagues.

I would be interested to know the specifics of how it contravened the Equality Act. I'm hoping to approach my DC's primary school soon so would like to be able to rebut these accusations if they're unfounded.

"There are a few more mentions of gender identity in the response, and each time they say 'gender identity and sexuality' as though the people objecting to the teaching of gender identity ideology are also opposed to teaching about LGB relationships."

Its deliberate co-opting.

I would be interested to know the specifics of how it contravened the Equality Act. I'm hoping to approach my DC's primary school soon so would like to be able to rebut these accusations if they're unfounded.

It doesn’t. Some of the trans lobby org ones do.