St Pauls School ditches the title "Head Girl" - The Times 19/06/21

[Melroses]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f707e7ac-d068-11eb-9bfa-a3bc386e6928?shareToken=e18c13082af7a98763f997219209b04c

An interesting follow up on Twitter:

twitter.com/TimesLucy/status/1406185779278368771

St Pauls School staff has received training which includes safeguarding advice, along with other independent girls' schools, from a company that is run by 2 late transitioners which exists to bring awareness of trans and non binary to the business sector.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9656779/amp/Fury-26-000-St-Pauls-Girls-School-hosts-talk-children-changing-sex.html

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/19/st-pauls-girls-school-pupils-choose-gender-indentity

The school has bigger problems than the head girl title. Several pupils have come out as trans and they are hosting talks from inappropriate speakers.

What? Are you not aware that there's a boys' school called St Paul's School? Maybe it should be calling itself St Paul's Boys' School.

That is exactly my point. Boys' schools assume that their name needs no further explanation. It's their right somehow to to own the name without justification. But girls schools have to explain themselves.

I'm amazed that I'm having to explain this on the feminism board.

Has the boys school ditched head boy too? Thank god DS didn’t go there - I’d be going bananas.

Faircop did a piece on Global Butterflies
www.faircop.org.uk/winging-it-with-butterflies/

So DSs school has a head boy and a head girl. How do they know 🤔?

My husbands school is doing the same but for good reason. They usually have head boy and head girl but says they have 6 amazing girls going for head girl and 2 rubbish boys going for head boy. They are now going to appoint 2 head pupils and pick 2 of the amazing girls.

[quote ItsAllGoingToBeFine]Faircop did a piece on Global Butterflies
www.faircop.org.uk/winging-it-with-butterflies/[/quote]
Thank you - I hadn't seen that.

No-one should be surprised that SPGS is in bed with Global Butterflies - Helen Semple (headteacher of said school) is one of the founder members of Schools Inclusion Alliance

And it’s not really about ‘inclusion’, it’s about ideology. Helen Semple is not being led by anybody, the ideology is embedded in everything she does!

It’s hard not to think that, especially since this is two transwomen giving the ‘advice’, that the aim (again) is to breakdown boundaries using girls who identify as trans as an excuse, but the real agenda is to prepare the ground for admitting natal boys to a girls school.

As an aside, I think Head of School confusing as it sounds like Headteacher, or similar job title. I know most kids want to grow up as fast as possible, but actually it probably does them a favour to be reminded that until they are 18 they are minors, not actual adults. They might only realise that with hindsight though!

More bullshit

er . . .

The school said the main reason it was reverting to the historical title of head of school was because senior pupils considered themselves young women rather than “girls”

Makes sense to me.

Amazing what you can pick up from articles by actually reading them.

Boys' schools assume that their name needs no further explanation. It's their right somehow to to own the name without justification. But girls schools have to explain themselves.

The Boys’ school was founded in1509, long, long before it was assumed that girls would need an education.

It took another 4 centuries for the girls’ school to be established.

Given the fight that has been necessary to give girls access to education (it seems likely that that former pupils would have been in the group of women allowed to attend but not graduate from Cambridge), they should be proud of their legacy.

As noted before ‘girl’ just means human female juvenile. It is not a state that should cause shame.

Amazing what you can pick up from articles by actually reading them.

Yes, indeed. They also said that ‘girl’ had ‘binary connotations’, as though it is somehow offensive for a girl’s school to acknowledge the sex if it’s pupils.

@WoolOfBat

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9656779/amp/Fury-26-000-St-Pauls-Girls-School-hosts-talk-children-changing-sex.html

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/19/st-pauls-girls-school-pupils-choose-gender-indentity

The school has bigger problems than the head girl title. Several pupils have come out as trans and they are hosting talks from inappropriate speakers.

This! In isolation changing the title to “head of school” is no big deal but added to all the other ‘education’ from the likes of global butterflies & stonewall, it suddenly seems symptomatic of a wider problem

In isolation changing the title to “head of school” is no big deal but added to all the other ‘education’ from the likes of global butterflies & stonewall, it suddenly seems symptomatic of a wider problem

It’s what’s known as a ‘quick win.’ Boiling frogs and all that.

Dd's girls' school changed Head Girl to Head Student because at c. 18 years of age they are not strictly girls any more. Also pupils have never been called 'girls' only 'students' so it made sense. Head of school is confusing I think.

@FifteenToes

er . . .

The school said the main reason it was reverting to the historical title of head of school was because senior pupils considered themselves young women rather than “girls”

Makes sense to me.

Amazing what you can pick up from articles by actually reading them.

Sure, it makes sense in isolation if a) you’re not aware of the head teacher’s ideology or you’re b) fully on board with it.

But it’s amazing what you can pick up when you read more widely than a single article.

Their twitter is illuminating:

@PaleBlueMoonlight

Agreed re: Global Butterflies. Very much under the radar and very very present in law firms in particular. Had no idea they were in schools. Also involved in creating the diversity guide for legislation, which (rightly) sets guidelines for the civil service about drafting legislation without male pronouns. Interested me because it was two diversity organisations (one of which, Global Butterflies, was a trans organisation) who advised on the document; not a women’s organisation.

I'm confused as the website says it's for businesses?

I think they came into DSs school. They also have ferret and vile in. I wasn’t impressed. The teacher who books the ‘turns’... well...

It appears that so many organisations run by men who self identify as women are very successful in accessing schools to advise girls and boys on transitioning issues.
I'm not sure why schools believe that these organisations / individuals have the knowledge of child psychology, child development, education and attainment in children, group dynamics and safeguarding along with the host of education issues that renders them appropriate to advise on so many aspects of childhood and education?

But here we are - self identified experts everywhere now dictating how children should be educated

[quote ItsAllGoingToBeFine]Faircop did a piece on Global Butterflies
www.faircop.org.uk/winging-it-with-butterflies/[/quote]
Dear god.

A red square to represent periods in social media posts, apparently to “taunt” transwomen because (wipes eyes) they don’t have them.

Transwomen also don’t have cervical cancer, smear tests, endometriosis, ovarian cancer, vaginal prolapses, pregnancy stretch marks, the menopause, ovarian cysts, polysystic ovaries , ectopic pregnancies , retained products from miscarriage , fibroids,Caesarian deliveries, Caesarian scars, ventouse deliveries, episiotomies and forceps deliveries .

Pardon me for taunting.

A red square to represent periods in social media posts, apparently to “taunt” transwomen because (wipes eyes) they don’t have them.

Amazing, isn't it, how pregnant women, post-hysterectomy women, post-menopause women aren't distressed by other women having periods.

They've been into this for while and I don't like it. Before I went there, the old headteacher (current one is Ms Fletcher, not Ms Semple, who's head of diversity) had drawn up a gender identity protocol that said students could choose whatever names and pronouns but would have to leave if they fully medically transitioned. Then I got shown the genderbread person in PSHE there and the head biology sent material round for lgbt history month saying ' We think it’s important to recognise that, whilst biology textbooks teach about sex in a fairly binary way, X and Y chromosomes are by no means the only factors that determine biological gender. It’s also important to note the damage that a binary concept of gender can have on the physical and mental health of those who don’t identify as male or female, or as their assigned gender. ' Then they invited the Trans Youth project people over to talk to the lgbt society and publiscised that, but they kept the Global Butterflies and Diversity Alliance stuff very quiet. But despite all the talk, I only know one person who identifies as agender (having previously felt they were gay), and isn't trying to transition. It's still worrying though. Fortunately, the comments in the papers show opposition to the 'binary' head girl stuff from parents and staff.

I can't help wondering whether there are any boys' schools which have now been persuaded to stop using the term 'Head Boy'.