Allsorts school assemblies

[Eyod]

Hi all, I have name changed for this but I am a regular poster/FWR lurker and I'm looking for some thoughts.

I received an email from the school this morning advising us that there will be a series of "extraordinary assemblies" happening soon. There is a child within the school who is exploring their gender identity and they want to ensure that everyone is treated with respect and love.

While this is great and I don't disagree with the ethos, I am nervous. I would like to ask the school some questions and am not sure what to ask without coming across as judgmental or transphobic. I was thinking along the lines of:

How will you help the children explore and discuss this without resorting to damaging gender stereotypes?
How will you reconcile the differences between gender and biological sex?
How will you deal with situations such as toilets and changing areas?

Any other good questions I can ask?

I have a child who is very GNC, has her hair cut very short, wears lynx, only wears boys clothes, is undergoing an autism assessment and I suspect possibly gay. All of this I am absolutely ok with but she would probably jump at the chance to feel special and accepted and I fundamentally don't think she has any kind of real gender dysphoria. Up until the past year or so she was a very stereotypically girly girl.

This is a Brighton school and I seem to recall reading that Allsorts aren’t exactly balanced. I’d really like to know what is going to be included so I can discuss this with DD.

Thanks.

This is a really unwise way for the school to deal with this. What happens when/if the child changes their mind? It would be very hard for that child to admit they were wrong after they'd had a special assembly in their honour. The school should not celebrate this. They should deal with it quietly and sensitively. My daughter changed her mind about being a boy - so glad her school didn't announce it so publicly! The child needs support and space to work things out - let them wear whatever uniform they want, hair cut etc - but don't stick labels on them that become hard to remove in the future.

Claire Graham who works in SEN gave an excellent analysis of the Allsorts schools guidance and Transgender Trend's.
She goes through it with regards policy and legislation.
Its really worth watching:

Thanks R0wantrees, I will give that watch later when the kids aren't around.

It's not DD but it is one of her best friends. I am not remotely surprised actually knowing the child, they have changed dramatically recently. According to DD the child's Mum knows but has said absolutely no way to any kind of medical intervention until they are an adult and can choose for themselves.

There is still the social contagion element to deal with though and I will ask for a chat with the head about how they are planning to deal with this along with many of the other points people have raised.

Thank you all.

I saw this material from Allsorts on Twitter this morning and figured you’d want to see it, OP.

twitter.com/dex_starz/status/1100410109207883777?s=21

So that’s everything you need to know about Allsorts I think

There is a child within the school who is exploring their gender identity and they want to ensure that everyone is treated with respect and love.

This coupled with the fact you are in Brighton means you are going to face an uphill battle to get the school to see any point of view but the Mermaids/Stonewall/Allsorts one. The few people I know in Brighton are extremely hard-line when it comes to this issue and would all label you a bigot for your concerns. My child would not be attending those assemblies, I'm afraid. I think you're going to need to raise your concerns very very carefully and go in expecting them not to listen to some degree.

From Haworthia's twitter link:

A Human Rights response would be to state that although the individual in question may have the body of a boy, they are in every other respect a girl and as such have the right under the Equality Act to change with the girls and to be treated fairly as such.

How is someone with the body of a boy 'in every other respect a girl'?

Do the people supporting this truly believe that people actually change sex as soon as they declare that they 'identify as' the opposite sex? We should be asking them every time someone comes out with this stuff.

Well, I did email the school, this is what I sent them thanks to the help in this thread:

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I read with interest your letter about the upcoming assemblies for year 10s.

While the inclusivity and education is commendable, I was wondering if you would consider using Transgender Trend (www.transgendertrend.com) instead of Allsorts for these assemblies? They have been shortlisted for the John Maddox award for Science and are far more balanced than Allsorts.

The Allsorts trans inclusion toolkit for schools is affiliated with Mermaids who are controversial and are considered to push for medical transition for children and teens exploring their gender identity. The extracts in the scenarios relating to the Equality Act 2010 are also incorrect.

The Allsorts toolkit states that under the equality act children have the right to change with the gender of that with which they identify and to disallow this would put them in breach of the equality act.

This is incorrect. Sex and gender reassignment are both protected characteristics but gender identity is not.
I would be grateful if you could please answer the following questions for me.

Please can I ask what these assemblies will involve? Will they promote regressive gender stereotypes such as the mermaids Barbie/GI Joe analogies delivered in Mermaids training courses?
What about conflicts of rights? How are they to be resolved?
What does the law say about single sex spaces in schools?
Has an equality impact assessment been done?
How are you guarding against social contagion in light of work on Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, especially in teenage girls and our current lack of understanding of this?
What happens when this is a male to female transgender child instead of a female to male? How will you ensure the safety, dignity and privacy of girls?
Do you believe these assemblies may make it harder for this child to change their mind about their gender identity should they want to?

The child exploring their gender identity should be protected. Equally, the other children in the school needs to be protected and I would just like some reassurance on this.
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And this was some of the reply I received:

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We are running three assemblies for Year 10 on the issue of identity. I gave the first of these today on the general theme of identity. The power point I used for the assembly is attached. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding this.

AllSorts are giving the next assembly next week. They know the student in question and we work with them, on occasion, to support students (they work in every secondary school in Brighton). I have spoken to their staff member who will be leading the assembly to give them a clear steer on what we’d like them to cover. I will also be reviewing their powerpoint in advance of the assembly.

The final assembly will be given by youth workers at x. Again, I have spoken to them and will be reviewing their materials before they present to students.

None of the assemblies will promote regressive gender stereotypes. They are focused around prompting the students to think about the question of identity more deeply, to reflect on identity within the context of our Christian ethos, and to ensure that students are treating all their peers with respect and kindness, in line with our school values. I therefore do not believe that the assemblies will have an impact in terms of making it harder for the student in question to change their mind about their gender identity.

We currently provide only single sex toilets and changing facilities in school and have no plans to change this. Any student in need of a separate toilet facility or changing space is given the use of one.

We are conscious of issues of social contagion with regards to this issue, and to others such as self-harm. We manage the risk of this carefully in school for the wellbeing of all students.

If you have any remaining concerns or questions please do not hesitate to contact me – I would be happy to talk further with you on the phone or in person if you would welcome that.
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This sounded pretty reasonable to me. However I was talking to DD today about the assembly and she said it was really interesting. Apparently she learnt that there are structural differences between male and female brains and it really is possible for them to be born in the wrong body (today was the Allsorts assembly).

Where do I even start with that? I am going to go in and speak to the head because I believe this information to be actually crap.

I would contact them and ask to see the presentation that Allsorts used, if they used an onscreen one. Ask them if it is true that the children were told there are girl/boy brains and that it is possible for one to be in the wrong body. Maybe reference Gina Rippon's recent publication debunking that idea.

I can't believe that organisations like Allsorts are able to get into schools and push this nonsense anti science stuff.

Sorry, I misrepresented what she said - apparently there are structural differences in the brains of transgender people rather than male or female.

Thanks for the update. That was an excellent email you sent. Definitely go in and talk to the head because tbf they sounded sane in their response.

There may well be differences, as there may well be differences in brain structures of people with other differences, like anorexia or major depression. Taxi drivers who have done the knowledge show differences in their brain structure before and after. The brain is plastic. It doesn't tell you anything about whether a child can have the "wrong" type of brain in their body.

If there were firm differences, then a brain scan would be used to confirm someone's gender dysphoria/gender identity diagnosis.

Fabulous letter! (Yours) and reasonable response though I'm still not sure they fully get it.

Yy Gina Rippon; there's an article in new scientist this week ( though the book is better!)

www.newscientist.com/article/mg24132190-100-how-neuroscience-is-exploding-the-myth-of-male-and-female-brains/

It was on the shelf this week but it's a weekly magazine.

There is no evidence there is structural differences in the brains of transgender people. I believe they probably took that from a small study of 8 trans people who had been on hormone treatment, who apparently had brains similar to that of the ‘gender’ they felt they were blah blah blah So much wrong with that ‘study’ and certainly no proof that transgender people were born with ‘the brain of the opposite sex’, a statement that makes no sense.

Yes the brain can change structurally when learning a new skill, eg apparently bilingual brains are identifiably different and that change can occur at any time in life, even old age, and can even protect against dementia.

Gina's point is that a gendered world creates gendered brain.

Gina's point is that a gendered world creates gendered brain.

Exactly. They weren’t born like that.