"Assigned at birth" - challenging it at school

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Has anyone successfully challenged the use of this terminology in a school? I teach science in a secondary school and I've just overheard a non-science teacher explaining to children in PSHE that biological sex is assigned at birth. I need to challenge it, but wondered if anyone has managed to get that particular terminology changed.

I am not aware of a single available PSHE resource or training which does not use assigned at birth. Even the godawful Catholic one I have to use which teach kids contraception is wrong uses assigned at birth and teaches gender identity as fact. Every PSHE org has been Stonewalled. Respect to this PSHE lead for making his own resources; there really is no alternative right now.

Seconded. We couldn't find anything and so wrote our own.

As a former local authority PSHE Advisor I recommend you have a whole school policy on this. The very fact that your PSHE coordinator is scratching around and randomly choosing resources is very concerning. SLT should be aware of what's happening and funding appropriate training and resources. What if you hadn't overheard the initial conversation? It really should not be down to chance. You sound very experienced and handled the situation well.

To be fair, he wasn’t randomly assigning resources. He couldn’t find any that adequately explain transgender (under the equality act), gender identity (under the RSE statutory guidance) and avoided gender stereotypes (which we are required to counteract). The usually good sources are shockingly bad on this topic (eg PSHE Association). I have raised issues in the past (re the Brooke Advisory) and we got them changed, plus did clarification lessons.

School staff are human. We make mistakes. On this issue we cannot rely on sources we should be able to trust (eg stonewalled NHS, contradictory government guidance). Of course it shouldn’t be down to luck, or chance. And it isn’t entirely, because our biology curriculum is explicitly clear on what sex is and that it cannot be changed. There is definitely a way to go, but unless or until schools get properly funded, assessed, and resourced with respect to PSHE we will be reliant on individual staff noticing an inconsistency.

I do think I handled it well though (this thread really helped). I’m gonna take that as a win for today.

PS, I don’t think it is possible to teach gender identity and to counteract gender stereotypes, so I think it is incredibly unfair that teachers are being expected to do both at the same time. Until the government gets a flipping grip we’ll keep doing the best we can to meet our legal obligations.

PS, I don’t think it is possible to teach gender identity and to counteract gender stereotypes, so I think it is incredibly unfair that teachers are being expected to do both at the same time. Until the government gets a flipping grip we’ll keep doing the best we can to meet our legal obligations

Couldn't agree more.

I am sad to read this and other posts concerning the lack of resources. I've had a quick look on the Safer Schools Alliance website and can only see resources they DON'T recommend. Obviously there's an opportunity to write their own. I'm going to be writing to them with this suggestion. The Sex Education Forum were always reliable in the past but you have to be a member to access resources. They might have been Stonewalled though. It's been a few years since I worked in this field, just as well really because I'd be kicking up a storm.

It's a pretty petty argument.

We are assigned a sex at birth, given one, made one, whatever.

Why would you want to waste time challenging such a non event with so much bigger issues in this area to talk about?

What would your term be?

I don't think it's petty and none of those alternatives you give are accurate either!

If they really want to include a sentence covering this, it's 'sex is observed at birth and can also be observed in the womb. Sex is determined at conception'.

This is more interesting and informative anyway.

Language matters and if anywhere should be aware of this it's a school. 'Assigned at birth' leaves room for ambiguity, setting up 'the doctor made a mistake' which TRA literature tries to push onto children.

Because words and facts matter?

No, we are ‘t assigned, given or made a second at birth.

Come on, this is really basin biology; do you think a little cock forms just after the baby pops out?

Has a midwife ever announced the sex of a newborn baby with a willy to the ecstatic parents ‘ooohhhh it’s a girl!!! Ever?

That's such a reach i can feel the pulled muscle myself

well it should be assigned at conception but they cant do that because people get offended if the scan is wrong.

Think about the end of life. A person is - a person is not assigned dead, it is observed and recorded. Certified even.

thats because you cant be assigned dead or undead.

How is that a reach? It is EXACTLY what they do and why they are pushing the wording 'assigned' at birth. Perhaps pay more attention.

It is never “assigned.” That word is used by trans activists specifically to pretend that sex is a choice, rather than a biological fact.

Sex is observed and recorded at both. The difference is not a matter of semantics, it’s refusing to play along with a movement using the word to argue that males are entitled to use female-only spaces.

It's not petty to teach accurate information in a biology class. A human has a sex, from conception, it is who they are, it's not a thing imposed by an external authority.

I was taught some crap stuff at school which was infused with colonial assumptions and racism, and I'm so happy that that is changing. Does that matter, is it petty?

It's an interesting thread to observe. You were being sea-lioned by an obtuse belligerent.
I have been observing a similar situation over on the dark side, which the participants use identical tactics.
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=205&t=1955017&p=38
I wonder if some of the same ones do the rounds of sites trolling?

Are you usually this paranoid or just arrogant enough to assume that if one has different beliefs, they are somehow dark and trolling?

Also, what on earth is sea lioned 🤣

Are you usually this paranoid or just arrogant enough to assume that if one has different beliefs, they are somehow dark and trolling?

If the belief is completely and utterly batshit crazy, then yes!

Enough of this nonsense now. Nobody believes that someone puts a sorting hat on you at birth and assigns a sex to you. NOBODY.

Obviously a nerve hit there. Which one is you?

The whole ‘assigned’ thing.

This implies that medical staff are trained at guessing the gender/sex of a newborn (and foetus in the womb). I haven’t seen that chapter in the medical books.

Maybe those so keen to use the term would like to share this - and explain exactly how it works?

No I dont think that, I just think people are being ridiculous about a word.

@GailForce10
Its 'which one are', not is.

But you didnt hit a nerve. It's just a fact.

No it doesn't.