Stonewall alternative for schools training

[joegargery]

I'd be really grateful if anyone can help. I raised my concerns re stonewall (who have been training the school) with my DC's school and they have taken an interest and agreed with my concerns. They also asked if I knew of alternative providers. I have looked on SSA but I couldn't actually find alternative providers.
Can anyone help?
Many thanks

Good on you! Have a look at this: www.transgendertrend.com/transgender-schools-guidance/

@joegargery
“I raised my concerns re stonewall (who have been training the school) with my DC's school and they have taken an interest and agreed with my concerns.“

Well done. You must have expressed your concerns both lucidly and respectfully for them to have listened.

This thread has some ideas:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4450586-School-speaker-LGBT-session-best-resource

Genspect (Stella O'Malley) and Michael Conroy (Men at Work) also offer training. Michael also has extensive experience working with boys to challenge sexism and sexual violence. Both excellent - as are Transgender Trend.

Thanks all.
It took a while. The first time I was slightly poo-poohed but I asked to speak with the safeguarding lead and he did listen and was shocked by some of what I expressed.
I was slightly kicking myself for not having ready an alternative though!
Thank you.

Well done joegargery
So many schools have been completely captured by Stonewall with their anti women / girls agenda. As they are "recommended" by the captured DfE it doesn't occur to most busy teachers that their messages pose actual harm to children.

Parents are having to step up, as you have done, and educate schools into the reality of what's happening.

Would love to know what you said to the school as I'm just about to challenge my kids secondary about their involvement with stonewall.

@joegargery

Thanks all. It took a while. The first time I was slightly poo-poohed but I asked to speak with the safeguarding lead and he did listen and was shocked by some of what I expressed. I was slightly kicking myself for not having ready an alternative though! Thank you.

Don't be kicking yourself. The truth is that nearly all PSHE providers have content that is questionable at best and completely against DfE guidance and basic safeguarding at worst.

The DfE is clear on the use of external providers, from here: www.gov.uk/guidance/plan-your-relationships-sex-and-health-curriculum

External agencies can provide speakers, tools and resources to enhance and supplement the curriculum.

It is important when using external agencies to take particular care that the agency and any materials used are appropriate and in line with your school’s legal duties regarding political impartiality. Your local authority, governing body and headteacher must:

^forbid the pursuit of partisan political activities by junior pupils
forbid the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any subject in the school take reasonably practicable steps to secure that where political issues are brought to the attention of pupils, they are offered a balanced presentation of opposing views^

Therefore if school cannot find suitable materials to use they must (IMO) prepare their own. It shouldn't be up to parents to solve this!

@Cleanmean

Would love to know what you said to the school as I'm just about to challenge my kids secondary about their involvement with stonewall.

Here you are Cleanman. Here's a link to Safe Schools Alliance who have draft letters and all sorts of advice about organisations like Stonewall and their inappropriate resources activities in schools:

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/resources-2/letter-templates/#Stonewall_Champion_schools_letter

It's not of immediate help to you, OP, but Posie (Kelly-Jay) was talking about just this issue, on her channel, on Friday.

She is aware of the problem & was asking for retired teachers to contact her, with a view to producing teaching materials. So that our children can be taught reality.

One of the things that continually strikes me with this kind of packaged stuff is that it means that schools are not really having to sit down themselves and think - what is it we actually want to get out of all of this? Instead they bring in a group like SW, or whatever, and what they receive is what that group thinks they need. Which even with a pretty good group might not be at all in line with what teh school is looking for or the kids would find useful.

I know when my daughter was about 12 or 13 there were constant guest groups coming into the school supposedly with great messages and stuff, and 99% of it was frankly a garbage waste of time. Either totally unnecessary, better taught just in day to day interactions in the classroom, or no business of the school to be indoctrinating their pupils with. Meanwhile they were giving kids audiobooks for books they were using in class because so many of them couldn't or wouldn't read and extra-curricular activities were crap and the kids didn't get outside enough.

So maybe what a lot of schools really need to do is sit down and figure out what kids their need from them, and also I would say what the parents want, and don''t want, the school to be doing. I realize this could be tricky given mandated material but I don't think anything is going to improve so long as there are just these slotted in "experts" who are almost always just people with an agenda.

Agree with you Santa. I can see why it is easier for schools to outsource this stuff but that doesn't help our children if the content is poor (or, potentially even harmful) advice.

There seems to be zero regulation of providers that come into school. Someone set up a petition about this a while ago but I don't think it got off the ground, here it is : www.mumsnet.com/Talk/petitions_noticeboard/4298589-Subject-all-outside-providers-of-educational-materials-to-children-to-Ofsted