Year 6 questionnaire

[Invisablewoman]

Hello, I'm being asked to give permission for my year 6 child to answer an online questionnaire at school with assistance from the school nurse. This is aimed at assessing their well being/emotional health etc.

I've asked to see the questions before giving permission but have been told I can't.

I don't want him exposed to questions that might relate to 'gender identity' or that approach the issue of sex and gender without me being their to temper any explanation of those terms.

Does anyone have experience of this questionnaire and what it asks please?

I should also say that the letter from school provides a link to various websites about young people's mental health - one of which directs children and parents to Stonewall.

I've asked to see the questions before giving permission but have been told I can't.

Have they given a reason for this?

I would go back and ask, or contact School Nurses direct.

I'm afraid I don't know anything about the content of the questionnaire, but would be very interested to know if you do find out.

Hi OP. I did this last year, and the school did allow me to look at the survey after I kicked up a stink. I had to go in and view it Under Their Eye though and wasn't allowed a copy. It was slightly odd - questions about alcohol in the home, bullying, online issues, support at home as well as at school, but somehow felt slightly ominous. I did consent in the end but there was something a little off I felt. Nothing about gender though. I certainly wouldn't have allowed it if they hadn't shown it.

Unless your school is very silly about this sort of thing I think it's very unlikely to touch on this. It will be about the impact of the pandemic.

I presume you can't see them because it will be an outside agency collecting the data. Perhaps it's online.

If they won't tell you what the questions are then refuse to give permission for your child to do it.

If I hadn’t seen the questions then I wouldn’t allow it. It’s obviously sensitive enough to require parental consent.

My first reaction was what's the point of asking parents to consent if they don't know what they're consenting to?

Otoh, having read LimpLettuce's description there may be a valid reason for the secrecy. It's not hard to imagine various sorts of dysfunctional parents coaching their kids on how to answer.

How can you consent when you don't know what it is you are consenting to. I would refuse consent until they can give you a copy of the questions.

Thanks everyone. It's giving me a gut "ick" but I'm trying to work through it rationally. There's something about your child being asked questions about their emotional well being with another adult in the room that I'm not comfortable with - although I completely get that some children may not be able to express their worries at home.

For clarification, it's an NHS survey, delivered online in school with the school nurse present. It's the school nurse who had told me that she can't send me the questions but had offered to discuss "the survey" with me. It's not clear if this means she will talk me through the questions or not but I'll arrange a call with her.

Otoh, having read LimpLettuce's description there may be a valid reason for the secrecy. It's not hard to imagine various sorts of dysfunctional parents coaching their kids on how to answer

This is true. But I suppose the way round this is to view the questions just before the questionnaire is taken, so that there isn't an opportunity to coach the child.

www.thelancastermodel.co.uk/

Hard, isn't it? I want children/YP to be safe and looked after and appreciate that may mean some impingment on my privacy so that this can be ascertained. OTOH, do I trust the govt/NHS to do the best for my children?

Surveys like this are partly meant to pick up kids who are unhappy at home, maybe with abusive parents etc. If all parents could read the questions, it would be easy for the abusive parents to withhold consent or (maybe worse), prime the kid to give the 'right' answers.

So there are general questions about how much the state should monitor kids (without parental consent) and ask them these kind of questions, but I'm not sure this is specific to sex/gender issues.

This is a tricky one. In some ways yes you should have a right to know what the questions are, as it concerns your child. But there could be good reason for not doing so with something like this.

Someone above said there were questions about support at home, alcohol in the home etc. If a child is having issues with these things and parents see the form, they can veto it before the child even has a chance to raise anything.

With mental health, it is possible that parents/ home life are actually having an impact - so can you see the issue with allowing parents to have a lot of input?

I'm also concerned that you don't seem to have trust in professional nurses and teachers that they will look after your child and do not have any bad intentions.

@parietal

Surveys like this are partly meant to pick up kids who are unhappy at home, maybe with abusive parents etc. If all parents could read the questions, it would be easy for the abusive parents to withhold consent or (maybe worse), prime the kid to give the 'right' answers.

So there are general questions about how much the state should monitor kids (without parental consent) and ask them these kind of questions, but I'm not sure this is specific to sex/gender issues.

But what's the point of knowing that when he answered the survey Jonny was worried about something at home?

Without context (Jonny broke the tv and his mum doesn't yet know which is why he's worried), and other flags (Jonny is withdrawn, often has handprint bruising and takes food to save in his pocket), no SW can get involved on the back of a survey.

On an individual basis it's pointless.

@parietal yes I totally get that. But it's about trust for me. Gender ideology is pernicious and I'm concerned about it being slipped into this kind of exercise.

And frankly adults are not supposed to keep stuff about children secret from parents. That's safeguarding 101.

If your concerns are purely about gender related questions then why not just raise this with the school, rather than asking to see the whole thing? Just say that if there are questions about gender you would prefer your child not to participate?

(Honestly I can't really see why but that's another issue).

@cookiemonster2468 I've explained why above.

@titchy

And frankly adults are not supposed to keep stuff about children secret from parents. That's safeguarding 101.

If there is a safeguarding issue relating to parents then professionals can and do do whatever is necessary to protect the child, including not sharing information where that could cause harm. If parents are causing harm then the school is, rightly, a protective factor.

The child is an entity separate from their parents, and Year 6 children are at an age where they begin to have some of their own agency.

[quote Invisablewoman]@parietal yes I totally get that. But it's about trust for me. Gender ideology is pernicious and I'm concerned about it being slipped into this kind of exercise.[/quote]
So just ask them specifically if the questionnaire asks about gender. You don't need to see the entire thing.

If it's the Lancaster questionnaire, It doesn't look like there is anything to worry about in terms of gender ideology op. The questions all look quite reasonable to me. All centred around the child to identify any gaps or concerns that can be rectified.

I'm divided about this.
On one hand anything that encourages children to open up about their thoughts and feelings can be positive. But not if it's to one of the . numerous adults in the NHS and schools who are anything but neutral about gender woo woo. Given the mangling of language, the determination to draw even the youngest of children into adult gender identity discussions I'd be a bit sceptical. I'd expect the questionnaire to be littered with leading questions and assumptions about gender identity The fact that this is so patronisingly top secret that parents aren't allowed to know the content is always a red flag.

Having said all that, how tragic that once respected organisations have to be viewed with suspicion because of their current track record in gaslighting children.

When I clicked on this thread I thought it was going to be the SNP's school questionnaire asking 14 year olds if they had experience of anal sex, and asking their "gender identity". Fortunately, many councils are refusing to administer it.
OP, I would refuse to let my child engage in any secret health questionnaire.
Consent is meaningless unless it is informed consent. How can it be, when you can't see the questions?

'School' seems a red herring here. This is a health questionnaire administered by medical staff to a child without the informed consent of their responsible adult?

The primary school my DD attended had a yearly health/well being questionnaire for yr6. The last year DD was there they slipped in a gender identity question. I can't remember the precise wording now as that's a few years ago.
I did get back to her class teacher and say I wasn't happy with this specific question, though it was intrusive and inappropriate for the age group and she agreed with me, added she was a bit shocked by it too but the questions were set by the local authority (health) not education. She commented that the question was new and hadn't been previously asked.