Weald school drops JK Rowling from its House names after transphobia row

[happydappy2]

The Head was on the radio earlier & The Times have picked up on it (sorry can’t link) I just cannot believe a Headteacher can justify not wanting to be associated with her name.....what signal does this send to the female pupils? Discussing yr rights is wrong & will get you blacklisted....her recent writing on the subject showed compassion and concern, not hatred, this is just crazy.

I seem to remember this in the 70s when I was a child. We used to get people to come in and give us wee talks. all sorts of subjects and topics. Its all gone one way these days.

Is anybody else reminded of the backlash against actors etc accused of being communists in the US a few decades ago?

McCarthyism. Yes, very much so.

I would be removing my children from their school if the equivalent happened there.

They’ve seen me get angry about what’s happened this week and I’ve told them if it was their school I’d be pulling them out, and why.

I'm local so the local newspaper has reported it on their Facebook page. The majority of comments are in JKR's favour. Including mine.

In fact one person who agreed, and said women were never denied anything, was piled on and deleted their comment I think. (I replied, but can't find her comment. Might be Facebook being an arse though, you never know) I will point out the pile on was polite, there were no threats etc.

The HEa really needs to step bank and ask himself - why a i ushing so much of the 'queer agenda' to these kids?

Wow Notpot your letter is amazing. Clear and factual.

I've you don't mind I'm going to use it as a template for any work issues I may encounter in the future.

If I had a child there they'd be withdrawn double quick. I so hope this nonsense bites him on the arse and he has to do a weasely back track.
What idiocy from a supposed educator.

@sussexmum

I've emailed the school not about whether she is a transphobe, just saying I'm concerned about their haste and shut down of debate = not good principles for the school. waiting for response. i am a parent there.

You're concerned about their haste?

I’d be asking the head why he is such an intolerant bigot intent on pushing a rainbow agenda at kids who are there to, y’know, learn educational stuff?

@thisismytimetoshine yup I made a point of keeping any other opinions to myself as I don't believe in judgement by Twitter or being forced to take a shouty black or white position on social media about something others may feel strongly about. not saying you were doing that though

I checked out the Weald School yesterday and thought that in many ways they looked like an excellent school, but was concerned by the recent promotion of queer themed material on their social media.

I noticed that in 2018 The Weald School was awarded a “Wellbeing Award” from an organisation called Optimus Education.

webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-K3crpp9_MYJ:www.thedistrictpost.co.uk/news/2020/01/the-weald-wins-well-being-award/+&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=ms-android-samsung-ga-rev1

These Wellness and Wellbeing related issues are relevant to my interests and I always dig around a bit when they come to my attention.

Optimus Education does a lot of work around issues of diversity and safeguarding with UK schools

Some sample links for readers’ perusal demonstrating links to Stonewall and various people / themes of interest

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200617074017/blog.optimus-education.com/how-tackle-lgbt-bullying-school" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20200617074017/blog.optimus-education.com/how-tackle-lgbt-bullying-school

<a class="break-all" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200617073414/my.optimus-education.com/conferences/delivering-statutory-relationships-and-sex-education/speakers-0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20200617073414/my.optimus-education.com/conferences/delivering-statutory-relationships-and-sex-education/speakers-0

archive.is/YJ9wY

worthy of further exploration perhaps?

@AsTreesWalking

Malorie Blackman is at least a good author

I loved Noughts and Crosses when I was younger but the series went off the boil in a big way after book two. Suddenly the relationships felt soap-y, none of the characters seemed capable of making a sensible decision, and everyone behaved like cartoon characters. The gangsters in Double Cross were a particular low, but really, I struggled to care about any of the new generation. And the new new generation in Crossfire are even worse.

Blackman also does two things I really hate an author doing: 1) she rewrites / undoes the happy ending of the previous book in the first few pages of the sequel, making you feel stupid for caring in the first place, and 2) she values twist endings above the reader's relationship with the characters, or even the reading experience. I thought I'd only got half the book when I downloaded Crossfire!

I'm really surprised that Malorie continues to be the BAME British author. Would it hurt to let someone else take a crack at her crown?

Thanks for the star ChattyLion

Thanks NoraEphronsNeck - I don’t mind at all, tho hope you don’t encounter any work issues!