Does anyone have access to Jigsaw PSHE lesson plans?

[LittleCabbage]

I posted earlier today on a thread from earlier this year, which came up when I searched for threads about Jigsaw, a company providing PSHE resources for schools. But I think it is less confusing if I just start a new thread.

I have just seen that my child's school is planning to use the Jigsaw PSHE curriculum this year, and the thread I found here discussed concerns re encouraging secrecy, and also a mention of possible concerns with the teaching of equality.

I plan to contact the school and ask to see the lesson plans for these areas. I have looked on the Jigsaw website but they only give subject areas rather the the specifics of what is included in lesson plans.

Before I email the school, can anyone offer any insight into what is being taught, and their opinions on the subject matter? Thanks.

Has anyone had any reply to their letters to schools regarding rse policies?

I've name-changed for this thread but I work in a school that uses Jigsaw.

Schools that use it were sent an email from Jigsaw about the letters that had been received and advised them not to reply.

This is what alarms me. I think that list of orgs without evidence has given schools an excuse to ignore us as cranks. I am also horrified that anyone is advising schools just to ignore letters from parents, however, whatever they may think of the views within them. I am a pshe teacher and have also seen the advice to ignore such letters. How can that be ethical practice? Women are being treated with absolute contempt.

Ok so my dds school have signed up for jig saw too how bad is it likely to he fir yr 5s?

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long silence. Life got busy for a while and I haven’t had the spare time to keep up with this. I did not receive a reply from my child’s school to my enquiry about Jigsaw PSHE lesson plans, so have emailed again today to ask again.

How interesting that some posters have seen evidence that schools are being advised to ignore such emails. Very dodgy.

Thanks @LittleCabbage for the update and keep us posted. I think another posted said about "not letting it lie". It is decidedly dodgy/unethical for Jigsaw to advise ignoring letters. Very concerning indeed.

Hi again all, I've spent a long time trying to make some sense of all this and what I should be asking of my DC's school (which is part of a large MAT and so actually thousands of children impacted).

Can anyone help me with a couple of really basic questions...apologies for my ignorance:

1. Who is the Mr Hughes that Baroness Nicholson has written to?

1. Do we know if she has had a reply?

1. Do we know how Jigsaw define gender and sex?

Hi @Purpler5,

It’s all very difficult to research, isn’t it? As far as I can tell, the “Mr Hughes” is an imaginary teacher? I think that letter is a sample letter to show the sort of letter Baroness Nicholson is advising that parents send to their child’s school. Although I am very pleased that Baroness Nicholson has taken on this fight, and seems so determined, I sometimes find her communications a little disorganised and confusing. I guess she is extremely busy though.

So I presume she hasn’t actually sent that letter herself (although is sending plenty of others) and therefore has not received a reply.

As far as your third question goes, I was looking at a related thread earlier, and found a link to a document by the Safe Schools Alliance which does specifically mention Jigsaw, and details some concerns regarding its PSHE provision. Link here:

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Parents-Guide-to-external-PSHE-RSE-providers.pdf#page28

And I will attempt to attach screenshot!

(Still waiting for further info from child’s school.....)

Thanks so much @LittleCabbage

I need to find some more time to look at this again.

Do please update as and when there is anything more to report and I’ll do the same.

I think going by that research Jigsaw is not as bad as a lot of the others! Not to say it sounds much good either. I teach some Jigsaw materials at secondary and they are quite well planned but the units I'm using don't relate to this topic. Keep going OP. I think unfortunately ignoring is the primary strategy for dealing with anyone raising concerns.

Yes, after a brief reply from the school, I am being ignored when I ask for actual detail. It makes me suspicious, so if they are entirely confident in their choice of PSHE materials, they are not helping themselves.

For your request to be dealt with according to the Freedom of Information Act, you must:

contact the relevant authority directly;
make the request in writing, for example in a letter or an email. You can make a verbal or written request for environmental information;
give your real name; and
give an address to which the authority can reply. This can be a postal or email address.
You do not have to:
mention the Freedom of Information Act or Environmental Information Regulations, although it may help to do so;
^know whether the information is covered by the Freedom of Information Act or the Environmental Information Regulations; or
say why you want the information.^

Assuming you are not an academy school, a request for information would count as a freedom of information request.

ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/official-information/

Hi OP I know this is quite an old thread now but just wondering if you ever did get a proper reply from your school? I'm trying to get into from mine at the moment but not having much luck. Would be good to know how it turned out for you.