Harris Academy Beckenham and prob others extremely worrying PHSE content.

[Flamingflamingnora]

Hi NC I’m a regular-ish.
So my year 7 DC has PHSE home school content. I decided to have a nose it’s been posted as general content. There is a page with links for LGBT the kids should follow and cover. They link to a man called Olly Pike on Facebook and a supposedly age appropriate set of three vids. Will post a link. This is listed on the school website as being age for 4 years an up. My child is 12. So. Wtf??? Red flag 1: if your thinking you may be LGBT+ first thing to do is tell a teacher maybe or another adult who is NOT in your immediate circle. Red flag 2. The child asks who are your roll models? I haven’t had time to google them all yet but Munroe Bergdoff is one and Andrew Moffat is another, mermaids are a great charity to get in touch with if you are gender questioning and here’s a link to their website blaa blaa. I’m honestly flabbergasted that this stuff is available to my 11 year old. For so many reasons I know you all understand. There is another link for children over 14 only. But my child can see and follow that link if they feel like. I haven’t had a chance to view that yet.
I need to contact the school to explain why this is in appropriate. Many of munroes horrendous tweets come to mind. Can anybody help me put something together. I’d really appreciate it. If I’m going to have a stab at directing them to a more sensible approach I’m thinking of sending a transgender trend schools pack but I’d like to do a covering letter. Any tips help- things to include would be welcomed.

It's unlikely Lord Harris will have a public email address, but if it's sent to the other senior people at the academy, it should filter through. I wonder if it's worth posting on their twitter account too?
Thinking about it though, why not send it to via his parliamentary contact page as well. Maximum exposure.

Harris Academys have an awful reputation.
Harris is the guy behind Allied Carpets, a BIG Tory party donor, who is now cleaning up in the state education sector.
There are loads of Harris academys and generally they have a terrible reputation.
Staff treated terrably, poorly trained teachers, cost cutting and exam cheating all regular features.
He attempted to take over the school I work in recently. Dodgy does not even begin to describe it.

Oh my goodness. No advice OP as my DC are too young, but I am in the area and horrified to see this. I’m so glad you picked up on it

Ok letter is done. I’ve done a lot and f cut and paste from the amazing safe schools alliance and transgender trend who have both loads of replace the helpful information about this. I’m just waiting on contact details for governors, So for anybody wanting to raise this with Harris ( please!) if you want to check your child’s PHSE content. -
Go into their Microsoft teams account.
Go onto the teams area which is split by subject.
Click on the general team that is their form tutor group. The links to share point for us was posted there.
Click on the link to the share point it says “please view house mail using the link below.”
A power point will then show virtual house mail w.b 6th July.
Page three contains the links.

What I’ve said:
I followed this link
My child is under the minimum age to use Facebook.
Questioned safeguarding around linking to external sites.
Described the video for younger kids - safe schools alliance have a great piece in this- see pp on this thread.
Talked about in appropriate content for age 4 and upwards including my child’s age group.
Discussed Bergdorf why they are not an appropriate roll model for any child.
Discussed mermaids - same. See transgender trend and safe schools for details. And shed loads of twitter but I’m not going there in a letter to school.
Discussed older kids video. how it ignores science. Further detail
Rounded up by saying the resources are in appropriate and need to be removed but you are unlikely to be the only trust to have had resources like this slip through the net due to the normalisation of all the above. Attached transgender trend RSE free resource and a safe schools fact sheet on equality and diversity red flags. I’m trying to be encouraging rather than damning. Hoping for some positive response from them once I can get it sent.

*inappropriate

@Flamingflamingnora
I'm a governor at an LEA school but suspect academies are similar- sch governors only get involved after you've gone through and not been satisfied with the school leadership channels, so I'd get the letter out as is cos they're v unlikely to get involved at this stage.

Also asked if the trust is using the younger kids video for its primary schools.

@Jeeeez
Thanks x

Does anybody know how to find an email for Lord Harris of Peckham as opposed to using the contact form for parliament. I might just have to send a copy to him that way. But ideally I wanted to have him copied in to my email. I think perhaps Baroness Nicholson would be interested in this too

Try copying the format of Baroness Nicholson's email? She is [email protected] so he may be [email protected]

Even if there are other P Harrises and it ends up going to the wrong person you'll at least send the message that you intend for him to read it and you can send it via the contact form as well.

I used the uk Parliament contact forms to share the letter to both the baroness and Lord Harris ans my local m.p. Would other parents let me know if they wrote what response they get.

gardening
For the purposes of research I watched Olly pikes version of Cinderella. My god it was so boring and so cringe worthy. But basically I saw girl who was very talented growing up in a sexist world who fancies girls. However Cinderella was trans!

Interesting that others have mentioned that Olly Pike has no educational training how do these people get do much kudos.

Another question guys- do you know if we can tell the school we are opting out child out of PHSE thats the subject area this is filed in for us? Until I see a change and removal of this sort of resource. I’ve had some very positive replies so far this morning, which is encouraging. Nothing from Harris Beckenham as yet though.
I would urge anybody with a child in a Harris academy to check, wether that’s primary or secondary. Remember this film is listed on the school website as being suitable for children over 4. Look at the content of RSE /PHSE power point lessons sent from the school to your child. Remember your secondary child may be largely working independently following links and googling recommendations that are not age appropriate. I’d also encourage you to write to Lord Harris, who I believe will be just as disturbed about this as any parent. Write to your school, inform your child that the content isn’t appropriate if they have it in their in box or on team chats write to the teacher who sent it, your head teacher too. Follow your schools complaints procedure. If they don’t remove it file a complaint with the governors
If your child is not in a Harris school check the content of RSE and PHSE if it’s not age appropriate write to your school.

Lots of LEAs are revising their RSE (r'ship & sec ed) with the new legislation coming in Septembber so it's worth asking questions about how they're delivering the curriculum, as many would argue, for e.g., that delivering complex (and disputed) ideas about gender identity shouldn't happen by FB link. Or without discussion. Knowing an RSE teacher who's helping to review my city's secondary sch RSE guidance and giving her links to gendertrend and other info has hopefully allowed me to steer her towards getting pupils to really question and debate gender stereotypes before introducing queer ideology. And to talk about detranstioning. Obviously I struck lucky with my contact, but we can all ask our schools how gender will be taught and ensure that there's some balance to the Stonewall ideology.

Just to clarify, the legislation is no longer changing in September re PHSE/RSE. Due to the Covid outbreak schools now have until summer 2021 to sort their policies out. Some schools are pushing on as before as they had already started the work but if any school tries to say they’ve GOT to do it for September, they are wrong.

www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-schools-allowed-delay-sex-ed-until-summer-2021

Flamingflamingnora
Parents can request to withdraw their child from sex education delivered as part of RSE in secondary schools which, unless there are exceptional circumstances, should be granted up to three terms before their child turns 16. You can't withdraw from PSHE as a subject.
Schools are also meant to have consulted parents about the SRE curriculum - which is done with various levels of skill and genuine parental engagement in different schools.

There will be countless parents questioning schools more closely about the materials they use now - especially as the details of the porn, the gaslighting, the coercion of children and the age inappropriate materials contained in so much of the lobby group materials become more widely known. Once the court cases start to hit, then it will be game over for the inappropriate adults currently being given access to children in schools by the government, academy trusts etc.

@truthisarevolutionaryact I wonder if that’s why ours appears in PHSE so that we can’t withdraw the children? I’m going to ask if I don’t have any luck. Still no reply from the school.

It is common for sex ed to be part of PSHE - although it is a distinct part of it and (as parents can withdraw their children) should be clearly identified as such.
The current difficulties are that the LGBT lobby groups offer all sorts of materials - some of which are excellent. LGBT issues currently seem to take priority over race, sex, SEN, disability issues that are are far more relevant to the majority of children. But these are getting pushed out. The LGBT groups are so wealthy with money literally being thrown at them by government and business sources, they can afford to push these glossy materials at schools and with "diversity" currently being obsessed with LGBT, all the other real challenges that children face get subsumed into being an add on to the queer theory indoctrination. I am amazed that more parents are not calling this out.

This is the reply I’ve had from the school today. Frankly I’m not reassured at all. It basically saying yeah you know - not great, but everybody uses it and everyone’s happy can we talk another time?

Thank you for your email regarding resources shared in a recent virtual house mail. As you know the resources were developed by an external organisation for the national Schools Diversity Week.

Many secondary schools across the country will have shared the same resources but I would like to be clear that, at Harris Academy Beckenham, they were shared with secondary students only.

That said, we recognise that the age requirement for Facebook is 13. The organisers of Schools Diversity Week were originally going to have a range of filmed resources on their website; however, due to the pandemic they moved their content onto Facebook. The resources were accessible on Facebook without logging into an account, but we agree with you that this was not ideal.

School Diversity Week took place at the end of last month and is now finished, and our resources for this event were due to come down.

Thank you for sending through some alternative resources, which I will review and share with the leadership group at the academy. Our wellbeing programme, which includes PSHE sessions, is popular and successful, and designed to support students to enjoy learning in an environment that enhances their health and wellbeing. We value the support of parents for this programme and appreciate your feedback on this particular set of resources. We are aiming to have a PSHE focused Parents’ Forum in the new academic year so parents can find out more about what students will learn, and ask any questions they have about how best to discuss these topics at home.

That's a shame but not a surprising response. I guess you can try to get other parents on board now (if you feel able to stick your neck out) so that when they hold the parents forum you all go in prepared.

I've been lucky in being able to further convince a PHSE teacher in my city (who's contributing to the new city-wide curriculum) that teaching should explore fully explore the problems of rigid gender stereotypes and emphasise puberty being challenging for some before they go into trans/non-binary issues. So they have some context, hopefully some critical understanding and aren't just rote taught.

After reading the mumsnet Keira thread (FtM taking GIDS to court) and her saying she'd have really benefited from seeing representations of lesbians when younger, I've persuaded my friend to include photos of lesbians in her curriculum. Could this be something you ask for in your school?

NB I've put together a collection of 40 or so photos of mostly young lesbians from the web that I'm happy to share. Obvs all done in the best possible taste

And I was wondering why the increase in trans kids 🤦🏻‍♀️ how has this ever gone so far? My daughter is one of them btw, I've definitely had my head in the sand. This has only been a recent development and I'm wondering how much shite she's had pushed on her in secondary school as the 'decision' came at Christmas and she started there in September.

@jeeeez I'd be interested in your images to pass to the Pshe lead in my school (where I teach). I am Gearing myself up to breaking cover as GC.

It could have been a worse response OP. If you decide to follow up you could ask if they have had the consultation about the sex ed curriculum yet - that PSHE forum doesn't seem to be it?
And I'd also ask for some information about what they cover in diversity week - did it include the other protected characteristics (or was it just the predictable 'rainbow' diversity) ? And what external groups do they work with / commission resources from. How do they exercise due diligence with regards to safeguarding, age appropriateness and checking for the dodgy individuals involved with some groups?
Isn't it awful having to even think that schools have been targeted in this way?

@TransScandal
Have you managed to access support from some of the groups like Transgender Trend? There are increasing numbers of parents trying to ensure that their children get safely through puberty to young adulthood before anyone coerces them into the drugs and surgery.

@ValancyRedfern
I PM'd you earlier about the photos.

I watched the 'inform your kids about porn culture' livecast earlier and Gail recommended placing porn centrally within secondary RSE teaching, with free materials here: www.culturereframed.org/