Cambridgeshire PSHE Service - any experience of materials

[IamNotDarling]

Our primary school is newly subscribed to this PSHE/RSHE’s services. Does anyone have any experience of this provider’s approach to gender?

The provider appears to be running an online course for schools on 17 March and the content is setting alarm bells ringing for me.

This course supports staff in developing understanding of gender, sexism and gender identities in primary, secondary and special schools. It includes approaches to reviewing policy and practice, a review of the national picture, consideration of the school environment and developing awareness of inclusivity across the whole school. Participants will consider implications for mental health.
Aims:
• To develop understanding of the benefits for individuals of inclusive, respectful approaches to gender identity.
• To reflect on the local and national impetus to develop gender identity awareness in schools.
• To develop confidence in creating school environments inclusive of people who identify in a variety of ways.
• To develop awareness of supportive materials for developing awareness of gender across the school community.
• To reflect on current practice and plan priorities for action.

The school is currently consulting on its RSHE approach so I have the opportunity to feed in. I can’t see this provider on the Safe Schools Alliance providers guide.

I'm afraid I can't help - but are those all of the aims? Because PSHE was originally proposed to tackle the epidemic of violence against girls in schools.
If you want to raise the subject you could ask them what they are doing to teach about consent, and their current policies and actions for tackling sexual abuse within school.

I have no knowledge of this current scheme or courses, but many years ago I did teach in Cambridgeshire and their PSHE schemes for primary were pretty simplistic. Looking at their sample scheme for Y3/4, it doesn't look like much had changed. I'd be interested to see what they have included in their suggested resources however.

All the teacher friends I have still in Cambs are firmly GC so I'd like to think they would think critically about new schemes.

Have a look at or contact Safe school alliance U.K. I think they've had some info on Cambridgeshire before

Sorry I see you've read the guide, I'd actually contact them.

What's the name of the provider?

The name of the provider is Cambridgeshire PSHE Service.

The school has provided the framework for the programme and when I was looking for more info on the provider the details of the course for teachers came up. Looks like CPT for staff.

Ah I see, I was confused as it sounds like a local authority.

Hmm looks like it is the LA?

• To develop understanding of the benefits for individuals of inclusive, respectful approaches to gender identity.
• To reflect on the local and national impetus to develop gender identity awareness in schools.
• To develop confidence in creating school environments inclusive of people who identify in a variety of ways.
• To develop awareness of supportive materials for developing awareness of gender across the school community.

I am not familiar with this org but the points it is planning on covering sound a few alarm bells. I’m not sure that their aim to develop ‘gender identity awareness’ is in line with the current government guidelines for schools. I am not aware of a say of communicating‘gender identity’ without saying or implying a child ‘may be in the wrong body’ (obviously totally against guidelines).

When they say inclusion, that often means including people in a category chosen according to their ‘gender identity’ rather than sex which is a big safeguarding no-no.

I think a very good point that Thelnebriati made us to focus on what is missing - is this the full extent of the PSHE topics on offer? What about online safety? What about sexual health and contraception? What about the protected characteristics- talking about disability, race and religion etc.

It would be good to understand how much time they are planning to devote to the gender identity topic in relation to all the other PSHE topics. I couldn’t see any course details on the website but at least it hasn’t got Stonewall champion on there.

From what I've seen of the course on twitter, the whole thing is on gender identity which is the issue.

Is it this OP?

twitter.com/PSHECambs/status/1366340688762138626?s=20

Which is inappropriate for primary for a start, I'd worry about safeguarding in sen.

(Safeguarding in all but in sen we really do need very clear definitions of male and female, room for lots of confusion.)

Yes, that’s the course. I’ll use the Safe Schools Alliance resources when I engage with the school. Thanks for all the replies.

Can you let everyone know how you get on? It will be useful for other people in the same boat.