Updated relationships, sex and health curriculum guidance

[umbel]

Updated government guidance, released today!!!

They just really enjoy chatting to teachers. There's no suggestion that the teachers will be teaching the children about what they learn at the training. That's not what teachers do. Teachers just go into schools because they need something to get them out of the house for bit.

Besides, Mermaids don't need to go into schools to push their ideology, they just make propaganda video ads and target them at child-focused internet content.

And they did not I repeat not ever try to make themselves appealing to children by using the name Mermaids or talking about gender jelly babies, barbies or action man.

Nor did they ever suggest a minor uses an email address that their parents don’t have access to....in fact they were completely against this!

I see that this is trending on Twitter and it is twisted to mean this government is being The authoritarian, thought police, and school are not allowed to critique capitalism or teach Marxism.

It's a useful insight into the reading comprehension and balanced critical thought of those both interpreting this guidance in this way and being cross about the guidance having been brought into existence.

Particularly when as many of those busy being cross are usually very approving of authoritarianism and thought policing and schools (and everyone else) not being allowed to criticise anything.

I'd unpick it further, but I have Frankie Howerd in my ear, sounding sad, and its really too obvious to need it.

But they won't be kept away from schools. The new guidelines specifically recommend using Stonewall lesson plans and resources in RSE classes.

They will be kept out of schools if they are trying to push ideas not based on evidence, such as "wrong body" theory. Or trying to indoctrinate children that everyone has an innate gender identity. Hence the epic back-pedalling.

And they did not I repeat not ever try to make themselves appealing to children by using the name Mermaids or talking about gender jelly babies, barbies or action man.

Remember them bringing a Labrador puppy to an event and giving away sweets? No comment needed.

Was it Mermaids who had (have?) that button on their website to allow a young person to quickly get off the page in case of being 'caught' on it? Was that just introduced at the start of lockdown, or became more publicised then?

Try telling that disabled people stripped of benefits in the middle of a global pandemic ...

The government have thrown hundreds of billions of pounds at the pandemic, much of it effectively as giveaways to the population. It's not simply a Left-Right issue. How ironic you're stuck thinking about this in strictly binary terms.

I think jj1968 is still misunderstanding how teacher training works. It's generally 5 days with teachers in & kids not, in the U.K., so tacked on to holidays OR if the staff are really unlucky, 'twilight sessions' after school.

Teachers want to spend the time developing resources & meeting with their departmental colleagues to get their heads round a new GCSE specification, or to reluctantly grapple with a new Whole School Policy that the new Assistant Head is enforcing because they need the data for their MA. Or they'd quite like to get on with clearing out the KS3 book cupboard.

SLT want everyone analysing data.

When stuff like Safeguarding is included, everyone is thinking about a) how best to protect kids AND b) how not to get sued.

External providers come under some scrutiny - no one wants to book anything contentious.

There'll be an awful lot of HTs crossing Mermaids off the list this week. Their credibility is completely blown.

Oddly enough, no one has ever said 'oooh shall we get WPUK in?', because running teacher training sessions isn't any part of what they do.

Feminist organisations aren't being chucked out of schools .

Feminists are already in the staff room, thanks.

Peddlers of gender woo, on the other hand, are going to find it a damn sight harder to talk their way in.

[quote jj1968]@BatShite
I don't understand why certain people are so upset in this case, if everything carries on as before and kids can continue to be convinced that they are actually the opposite sex because they like the 'wrong' toys. All as usual then. So the kickoffs in certain quarters are rather odd, I think.

The kickoffs have nothing at all to do with trans people. Not everyone thinks this is the only political issue that matters.

@lady69

Our government is not “very right wing” by any stretch. Utter hyperbole, usually spouted by Corbynites in my experience. Current gov are pretty centrist.

Try telling that disabled people stripped of benefits in the middle of a global pandemic after dubious cost cutting assessments, or refugee children locked up in detention centres awaiting deportation or single mums living in B&Bs with their kids because the government won't build enough social housing or pay adequate benefits. The entitlement on here sometimes is breath-taking.[/quote]
If the government were “very right wing” there would be no disabled people. Get my drift? Get some perspective. The toreez are literal nazis! No. As they really aren't in any way.

I see that this is trending on Twitter and it is twisted to mean this government is being The authoritarian, thought police, and school are not allowed to critique capitalism or teach Marxism.



Meant to add 'squirrel' to that post

The kickoffs have nothing at all to do with trans people. Not everyone thinks this is the only political issue that matters

How thick am I? Don't even know what this means.

You say "trans people are not kicking off" OK, fine. That's good, right?

If I write the second sentence differently it could read "lots of people think this is not a political issue that matters". Ok, but why are you saying this on a thread that you have OMG invested SO many hours, so many posts? I guess it matters to you.

[quote Siameasy]They received a 35k grant to deliver schools’ training but are now saying they do not offer school talks to students?!

No- you were indoctrinating the teachers!

www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/15/transgender-row-teachers-afraid-challenge-breast-binding[/quote]
Slightly off topic / going back a page or two, but that Guardian article from May 2018 is surprisingly balanced, with a lot of time given to Transgender Trend.

@CorvusPurpureus

*When stuff like Safeguarding is included, everyone is thinking about a) how best to protect kids AND b) how not to get sued.

External providers come under some scrutiny - no one wants to book anything contentious.

There'll be an awful lot of HTs crossing Mermaids off the list this week. Their credibility is completely blown.*

Mermaids have 7 staff, which is pretty much double what they had a year or so ago. Seriously just how many teachers or schoolkids do you think they've managed to train?

And if schools don't want to get sued the safest decision will be to use who the government recommends which is Stonewall.

I have many complaints about the benefit system having been under it for years now and likely to be reliant on it for life. Believe me, its certainly not perfect and yes, its draconian at times. From memory, this has been the same under successive governments, and is unlikely to change very much despite (to me) the obvious answer being...consultant evidence is enough (ie. a sick note is enough for any employer, not sure why reams of evidence is not enough for sick benefits). But thbis is not at all any sign of a 'very right wing government' IMO..a far right government is likely to just strip sickness benefits completely. This government has given, and continue to give huge amounts of money to those hit by the pandemic too..hell in all honesty I have been quite shocked at how they appear to be prioritizing health over the economy, as so many decisions are going to fuck the economy for a long time. Thats not indicative of a very right wing government to me at least. But thats kind of offtopic, which was possibly the point of going in that direction..

Also, no matter how many people try to pretend this is only a right wing concern, thats utter bollocks. This is a cross party issue. Women of all political stripes have came together (on this one topic, doesnt mean they all have to agree on everything!) and all parties were as woeful as each other. While Tories appear to be slightly ahead in the giving a shit about women stakes, it shouldn't be forgotten that it was actually them attempting to bring in self-ID to begin with!

Whole post is possibly offtopic, delete if needed. I have always been left wing, I was even a Corbynite at one stage ( :blush: ) but its total and utter bollocks to try and pretend the current government is far right..

If the government were “very right wing” there would be no disabled people. Get my drift? Get some perspective. The toreez are literal nazis! No. As they really aren't in any way.

Okay, so centrist means not Nazis now. Got you. Thatcher was centrist.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

But they won't be kept away from schools. The new guidelines specifically recommend using Stonewall lesson plans and resources in RSE classes.

They will be kept out of schools if they are trying to push ideas not based on evidence, such as "wrong body" theory. Or trying to indoctrinate children that everyone has an innate gender identity. Hence the epic back-pedalling.

They've never pushed the wrong body theory. But it is their position that trans women are women and that trans children have a right under the Equality Act to be treated as their aquired gender. And the DfE are clearly fine with them going into primary scools and teaching that which presumably is not considered to breach the new guidelines.

@Batshite I said very right wing not far right. If I thought they were fascists I would have used the term far right.

[quote jj1968]@Batshite I said very right wing not far right. If I thought they were fascists I would have used the term far right.[/quote]
Yes, I realised this after posting it, used very right wing everywhere else. Ignore the far right part, I meant the same but for some reason tried shorthand which totally changed the meaning of what I was saying...bit late for me I think

jj1968 - not this again 😁. Mermaids have had a rather considerable reach in schools, & you've been given the receipts. That's over.

Stonewall are going to be coming under similar scrutiny. Maybe they can comply with the guidelines, which would be great.

If not, there won't be any shortage of voices pointing their non-compliance out to them.

Tbh, some of their resources for PSHCE used to be excellent, & it would be good to see them getting their house in order. But an awful lot of us won't be trusting them blindly, ever again.

Which is great news for safeguarding. NO organisation should just be hand waved into schools because they've got a nice colourful logo & used to be sensible 5 years ago.

Schools should be sceptical of outside organisations & do due diligence. These guidelines are making that very very clear, which is excellent.

@CorvusPurpureus

The receipt was evidence of one training session. I'm not claiming they've never done any teacher training. But in the general scheme of things they have done very little, I doubt they've been into more than 100 schools given how small they are, so it's unlikely they've had a significant influence in the classroom.

But it is their position that trans women are women and that trans children have a right under the Equality Act to be treated as their aquired gender.

"Trans women are women" is a non evidence based political belief and they will not be able to present it unchallenged. And the "right under the Equality Act to be treated as the acquired gender" clashes with rights of other protected characteristics and has limits, and will need to be looked at in a balanced way.

They've never pushed the wrong body theory. But it is their position that trans women are women and that trans children have a right under the Equality Act to be treated as their aquired gender. And the DfE are clearly fine with them going into primary scools and teaching that which presumably is not considered to breach the new guidelines.

I'm sorry, anyone who has watched Susie Green's TED Talk knows that Mermaids pushed the 'born in the wrong body' theory.

Liz Truss has made it absolutely clear that single-sex spaces are exactly that. School girls have the right to single-sex changing rooms and toilets that don't include male-bodied children.

This is a static picture of a lamp. It's not dimming and brightening. That never happened. You're imagining it.

Mermaids have 7 staff, which is pretty much double what they had a year or so ago. Seriously just how many teachers or schoolkids do you think they've managed to train?

They use volunteers, of which they had 132 last year and were training 49 more.

We have recruited and trained 84 additional volunteers since November 2017 to increase our pool from 48 to 132 (less 5 retired volunteers). This figure does not include a further 49 volunteers who are within the application process. 69 of these volunteers (including in progress volunteers) have been recruited to support events in particular. Giving young people supported opportunities to represent Mermaids provides them with training and a boost to their self-esteem and confidence. We have engaged 36 young people to help deliver training and speak at events.

It's not clear if other training sessions are delivered by volunteers in addition to the ones mentioned here:

In 2017/18 our training manager delivered 93 training sessions across the UK. Many of these were part of the delivery of the DfE training project. In 2018/19 we estimated and increase to 120 delivered sessions, but exceeded this with the delivery of just under 140 sessions (138). Income was estimated for the year at £15,000 plus the HBT grant (DfE) of £13,800. In practice, income was £34,000 for training and consultancy, and the HBT Grant income increased to £16,702 for the year as our training manager delivered training into additional schools compared to the original contract.

From their accounts on the Charities Commission website.
register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search

@Ereshkigalangcleg

But it is their position that trans women are women and that trans children have a right under the Equality Act to be treated as their aquired gender.

"Trans women are women" is a non evidence based political belief and they will not be able to present it unchallenged. And the "right under the Equality Act to be treated as the acquired gender" clashes with rights of other protected characteristics and has limits, and will need to be looked at in a balanced way.

Says who? Not the DfE. This scheme is live, Stonewall's existing lesson plans are the recommend resources for LGBT RSE lessons and schools must teach about trans issues. Why do they need to change anything, they've got a seal of approval from the Government. You've been had, they put some guff in the guidelines about gender stereotypes and are carrying on as normal. Much like with single sex spaces, nothing is changing and under the Equality Act trans women have the right to use single sex spaces in most cases as the MInister for Women just confirmed in the House of Lords.

I've got to hand it to the Tories, I did think this lot were pretty inept, but managing to convince a political faction to cheer when they've lost is really rather deft.