Updated relationships, sex and health curriculum guidance

[umbel]

Updated government guidance, released today!!!

There's a lot of reverse ferreting going on.
GIRES have taken down their course on working with gender diverse children (they're looking for CPD "accreditation apparently ).
It was the one who instructed that a school nurse should immediately affirm a primary child who said they were the opposite sex. It also told individual teachers that they could keep Daisy's disclosures about thinking she was the opposite sex confidential from anyone (even the safeguarding lead).
They had (after several years of complaints) recently amended it to include some safeguarding information but that e-learning course was on line for years giving adults working with children incorrect and dangerous information about safeguarding.

I have the screenshots of all this dangerous misinformation.

DfE: “We are aware that topics involving gender and biological sex can be a complex and sensitive matters to navigate.“

The Government is quite right here; issues around gender identity and gender-nonconformity have long been a complex and deeply personal matter

They can’t even bring themselves to say sex. They’re so hellbent on twisting the government’s words so they can continue doing what they want.

Well this is so clear now. Children can be protected from this dangerous ideology. Now I hope the schools are reinstalling singe sex loos for girls, and I wonder how GG will be handling the change in emphasis, among other. Great work all of us.

@cheeseismydownfall, yes please to that template letter from Baroness N.

DfE: “We are aware that topics involving gender and biological sex can be a complex and sensitive matters to navigate.“

The Government is quite right here; issues around gender identity and gender-nonconformity have long been a complex and deeply personal matter

Have not got the point yet then that partisan political views can't go into schools any more.

With the key partisan political view being biological sex isn't part of the conversation, and that someone's personal gender matters are of central importance and other people's sex based rights aren't. There will no longer be the opportunity to present the matter as having only the one side and female people/sex based rights not being in any way involved.

The transcript is really, really eye-opening.

It starts off in French, but the actual transcript itself is in English.

tradfem.wordpress.com/2018/12/24/compte-rendu-dune-session-de-formation-de-futures-enseignantes-britanniques-par-lorganisation-mermaids-inc/

Stereotypes from start to finish. And any questions about, for instance, the validity of suicide statistics are dismissed.

Asking about how you know if you are trans, because isn't it just comparing yourself to stereotypes, is actually agreed with, and then legitimised.

Mind-boggling stuff.

I'm finding it really interesting that this piece of guidance seems to be massively influencial.
Where are the protests from these groups telling the DfE they've got it wrong...
Instead they all seem to be falling in line. Seems far too easy.

@cheeseismydownfall could I have a copy of the letter for headtecahers please?

@Beamur

I'm finding it really interesting that this piece of guidance seems to be massively influencial. Where are the protests from these groups telling the DfE they've got it wrong... Instead they all seem to be falling in line. Seems far too easy.

I guess the DfE are the little boy pointing at the emperor and shouting 'but he isn't wearing any clothes!'

Just realised that tale badly fails the Bechdel test....

@Beamur

I'm finding it really interesting that this piece of guidance seems to be massively influencial. Where are the protests from these groups telling the DfE they've got it wrong... Instead they all seem to be falling in line. Seems far too easy.

Because they know they're wrong. They've been ignoring safeguarding, Working Together & Education law for years and now they've been exposed. There's nowhere to hide.

Seems far too easy.

No, the unknown author of that document is making it look easily.

Someone (maybe with legal training?) has created a watertight piece of prose that manages to be utterly reasonable, yet lock down every single problematic point in GIRES or Mermaid's platform in such a way that any attempt to contradict it will make them look bad.

Now, sure, we know there was a lot of stuff to criticise, but whoever wrote that knows Mermaids et al inside-out, has been watching very careful and knew how to utterly neuter them.

It's a masterpiece.

But it also only works because a real government policy document. If Transgender Trend or JK Rowling wrote the same thing they could screech "transphobia" and manage to get people to not read it. That doesn't work when you're trying to work with schools - you can't tell them to ignore what the Department for Education has mandated.

why aren't they shouting bigoted right wing tories?

Stonewall didn't accept article 28.

Necessary Scene 1
It is indeed an excellent writing. Hats off to the author. It's reasonable, legal, makes perfect sense and looks pretty tight on the loopholes.

@NecessaryScene1

Seems far too easy.

No, the unknown author of that document is making it look easily.

Someone (maybe with legal training?) has created a watertight piece of prose that manages to be utterly reasonable, yet lock down every single problematic point in GIRES or Mermaid's platform in such a way that any attempt to contradict it will make them look bad.

Now, sure, we know there was a lot of stuff to criticise, but whoever wrote that knows Mermaids et al inside-out, has been watching very careful and knew how to utterly neuter them.

It's a masterpiece.

But it also only works because a real government policy document. If Transgender Trend or JK Rowling wrote the same thing they could screech "transphobia" and manage to get people to not read it. That doesn't work when you're trying to work with schools - you can't tell them to ignore what the Department for Education has mandated.

This.

@cheeseismydownfall, yes please - would appreciate a copy too.

@BabyItsAWildWorld

why aren't they shouting bigoted right wing tories?

Stonewall didn't accept article 28.

Stonewall wasn't the establishment and providing teaching resource packs to schools from 1988-2003. They were the outside campaigners.

There will now be a split. Some groups will take the Mermaids line - they will decide that they do actually want to work inside the system and abide by the new rules. And continue trying to fight their corner from within, no doubt.

Mermaids are primarily about the children - they're the Munchhausen Mums doing their thing, and I'm sure they can rationalise this to themselves. Obviously all they've ever wanted is to help the children with lots of nice lottery grants.

It's the more "queer" groups that will now be on the other side - the ones who really are in it for the queer identity line. They won't be able to bring themselves to parrot "TERF" talking points. They will be attacking Mermaids quite heavily soon. The American TRAs are going to be having all their doubts about the cis women at Mermaids confirmed. But most importantly, they're now on the outside. (I guess this will include "No Outsiders" - lol).

DFE "Teachers should not suggest to a child that their non-compliance with gender stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing"

Benjamin Button "of course some people are born in the wrong body and that's you know their gender identity"

Sonia Poulton "it's a serious problem is we are actually now telling children that it is possible for them to have been born in the wrong body and that is really problematic"

@RuffleCrow way back on page 6 you said that girls over 8 are legally entitled to single sex toilets. In the interest of making my kids school aware, what law does that come under?
Also are boys entitled to single sex toilets too? If they allow boys in at one time then girls in another, does that count as single sex? Thanks Ruffle and anyone else who takes the time to answer.

@snoopdoop

The Spectator piece is a bis misleading. If a child confides with a teacher that they think they might be trans and are worried their parents might be hostile or abusive if they come out then that teacher, whilst bound by safeguarding guidelines, is under no obligation to inform the parents anymore than if the child said they thought they might be a lesbian or gay. I hope everyone here would agree with that. That is basic safeguarding. The most likely people to abuse a child is their own family.

It beomes more complex if the child decides to 'come out' as trans and socially transition at school. This could also, in theory, be witheld from parents if there was a safeguarding risk identified in telling them. Safeguarding policy has not changed with these new guidelines so neither will this. In practice I find it hard to believe it could happen anyway, how on earth could such a big change be kept from parents when every child in the school and by extention their familites knows and would no doubt be gossiping about it.

The new guidance says schools should work with parents on how they treat their child but this has always been the case in lots of diffirent areas. Obviously that is something schools have to balance with practical concerns and safeguarding measures. What if those parents are genuinely transphobic or homophobic? What if the child refuses to answer to anything but their new name, or disengages completely from education if their gender is not respected? So hopefully situations in which a child expresses a desire to transition at school and parents forbid it will be addressed on a case by case basis with the interests of the child, not the parent, paramount.

Just listened to the recordings. I now better understand why many LGBI groups are equally outraged.

[quote wishcaptainbarnaclewasmyboss]@jj1968

How do you describe a "general sense of who you are in your mind" without reference to any gender stereotypes? "I feel I am a boy because I like typical boy stuff" is very close to what mermaids have been advocating - which is gender stereotyping. "I feel that I am in the wrong body and I look down and feel I should have a penis and can't associate with having a female body and would only want to have sex as a man, as this is the body I see myself having" is very different.

Of 100 girls identifying as trans, at least 80 will "recover" statistically speaking, so for most whatever feeling they have is a transient feeling that they might prefer to be a boy. Probably in reaction to social stereotypes or body hatred in puberty.

No more than 20 experience true distress at their body (ie their sex) and may go on to try to transition to change their outward appearance visually so that it aligns more with the sex that they want to resemble.

How do you communicate and support this sense of self to people who are still finding out who they are, without pushing the 80 to do something that they might regret later?

It really isn't that easy. [/quote]
I think your first paragraph is quite a good description and it should be recognised this is how some children feel.

I think we need a bit more evidence than 80% will recover, that's based on one study which has it's limitations. But in the UK at least only around one in ten thousand children is referred to trans healthcare each year and of those less than half will undergo any medical treatment at least whilst under 18, and whilst this has risen those numbers seem to be stabilising now. So it seems pretty clear that the vast majority of gender nonconforming kids, and trans kids, are not going down a medical pathway.

I do agree it isn't easy, and I welcome the review into the Tavistock as they have come under heavy fire from all sides of this debate so I think it will be good to have a look at exactly what's going on. But I don't think it's a school's jobs to be making these kinds of decisions so it's probably not that relevent to this thread.

jj1968
You demonstrate a dangerous ignorance of safeguarding.

Only the courts can remove parental rights. Working in partnership with parents is key in safeguarding. It's why schools are often told to inform parents when their child has reported they've hit them before Social Services contact them. Most of us trained and working in safeguarding are experienced in working with angry / abusive parents who at times harm their children.

Safeguarding is detailed, nuanced and based on serious case reviews into deaths and serious harm being done to children and there is nothing on practice or law that states children are supported by keeping secrets from their parents.
Trans groups trying to subvert these principles in order to alienate children from their parents are dangerous.

@Beamur

I'm finding it really interesting that this piece of guidance seems to be massively influencial. Where are the protests from these groups telling the DfE they've got it wrong... Instead they all seem to be falling in line. Seems far too easy.

Almost as if trans groups agree that being trans has nothing to do with gender stereotypes and welcome government guidelines that mandate children being taught about trans people without all that regressive nonsense.

In practice I find it hard to believe it could happen anyway, how on earth could such a big change be kept from parents when every child in the school and by extention their familites knows and would no doubt be gossiping about it.

It happens with alarming frequency. It happened to us except my daughter’s Year Head told her unaware brother that his sister was now a boy at school. The Year Head didn’t tell us- our son had to- and then when the Year Head finally bothered to meet with me a month later, he told me we had no say as parents. This was despite a child psychologist saying we should not be affirming but should be doing watchful waiting and our watching our daughter’s mental health deteriorate while the school affirmed her as a boy.

Many many parents like me have been writing to and regularly communicating with MPs about our experiences with schools affirming our children behind our backs. Thankfully they have listened to us.