It's RSE Day and Twinkl, a hugely popular maker of school resources, and relied upon by many teachers, has issued an LGBT+ best practice guide for primary schools, co-produced with Stonewall. This can be downloaded for free here:
www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-lf-255290-lgbt-inclusive-education-primary-best-practice-guide?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=twitter
This seems problematic when it comes to sex and gender.
- The Equality Act is referenced but nothing about the protected characteristic of 'sex'. Instead, the impression is given that the Equality Act requires schools to do something about 'transphobic language'
- 'sex assigned at birth'
- 'gender identity' is conflated with 'challenging gender stereotypes', for example in this sentence: 'tackling gender stereotypes and celebrating trans people is an extension of the excellent work they’ve already been doing on celebrating diversity'
- gay/lesbian defined as 'same gender' attraction
- gender defined as 'refers to a person’s own feeling of whether they identify as a man, woman, or neither', so an internal psychological state instead of a system of social relations
I have not been able to read this carefully but this worries me, and I hope teachers will look at this resource critically.