Jigsaw PSHE resources

[HHH3]

Just looking through DS2’s primary school website at their PSHE policies. They are using the Jigsaw PSHE resources.

Does anyone have any thoughts/experience about these. It’s only really an overview so I can’t tell exactly how the LGBT+ stuff is taught.

For info, DS2 is autistic so he’s likely to take things very literally.

DC’s school will be using Jigsaw this year too.

I couldn’t find anything about anything specific. The info sent from the school was quite generic and the videos linked to the info was really generic too.

I understand why children need to attend age appropriate PSHE lessons, but I am now sadly sceptical about any group that wants to create resources that teach children about sex and relationships when so many seem to focus on identity politics.

We do jigsaw at our primary. Year 4 have touched on sex education but we haven’t done anything specific to LGBT+.

@Jobsagoodun1 this is exactly how I feel. I wasn’t worried at all when DS1 did sec and relationships (he’s a lot older than DS2). Now I’m worried about what they’ll be saying about identity, born in the wrong body etc.

@Anewuser Do you work at the school or have a DC there?

The school I'm at uses jigsaw too, last year I was in year 5 and we touched on sex and relationships, we didnt touch on lgbt+
Even in the anonymous questions bit, where the children are free to write post it's to ask the teacher and ta anything they wanted, none of them had questions, so it wasn't brought up.

Page 28 of the Safe Schools Alliance guide has info on Jigsaw:

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Parents-Guide-to-external-PSHE-RSE-providers.pdf

@HHH3, I work there.

DS has just started Y5. Do you have any idea what the content is like for that year at all?

Thanks. That’s good to know.

@Anewuser

Great that you work at Jigsaw, maybe you can help.

Your resources were removed from our school as Jigsaw appear to believe that children are sexual beings, they believe in gender identity and the example Jigsaw used of Robert/Roberta Cowell is misogynistic and misleading.

"Developing sexuality” is a phrased used in the text aimed at 5-6 year olds in relationship education. Jigsaw say “This difference may be about this developing sexuality or gender identity”.

Is it jigsaw's belief and company policy that children in KS1 have a "sexuality" and a "gender identity"?

OP if you search of Jigsaw and PSHE and RSE you'll find several threads that provided me with resources that lead to the removal of Jigsaw at our school.

Robert/Roberta pretended to have a DSD condition, pretended not to be a father in order to receive the ‘gender affirmation surgery’ from a surgeon (who also considered themselves to be the opposite sex) and his ‘transition’ caused deep distress to his family.

Is Cowell a good example of 'diversity' and 'disability' and is this why Jigsaw use this example?

@OhHolyJesus @Anewuser says they work at the school, not jigsaw from my reading ....

Ah thanks @SeagullSausage - apologies if I misread this.

If anyone reading does work for Jigsaw (as I heard from the HT there is, as he was told, that there is a lot of misrepresentation of Jigsaw, maybe some of it is on MN?) I would like to know what explanation there is for Jigsaw's position.

Thank you @SeagullSausage, I work in a primary school.

I’ll be honest, our PSHE lessons are very tame, generally about kindness and friendship. Whilst there’s a structure to the lesson, it’s more about letting the children share their opinions and feelings. I can’t imagine our class getting too heavy about LGBT+ and 20% of the class have ASD so we are aware how literal some children can be.

Thanks for confirming and apologies as I misunderstood.

I wouldn't be ok with our school using Jigsaw at all, even if they edited out the idealogical stuff. Does your school know about the way Jigsaw views children?

I have taught using jigsaw, there is none of the "born in the wrong body" stuff and it is generally quite mild. I wouldn't worry too much.

Our HT introduced Jigsaw with a message for parents which also mentioned ‘misunderstandings’ about PSHE.

I have heard of Jigsaw before on here, but all the official Jigsaw info to access online is so watered down it gives absolutely zero indication as to what children will be taught.

There are older threads about Jigsaw which has their lesson plans in screenshots attached so you can see the Jigsaw content and that's where I got the info from at first and why I had and raised concerns. It's clear from what they teach that they do cover 'transgender' by using the Robert/Roberta Cowell story for older kids and they also have a Billy, Bella and 'B' example for younger kids (5-6yrs) which implies there are children who are neither male nor female so it strongly suggests you can be inbetween or neither.

It's really not as innocent as Jigsaw make out, the HT who removed it remarked that in conversations with them there was a lot of confusion and diversion. They also claim to be endorsers by DoE which DoE don't do. They don't specifically say which external advisers are 'safe' to sue and which aren't. It's up to the schools but they need to operate within the mandatory guidelines, updated recently to specify that PSHE and RSE needs to be taught with "robust" statistics and be fact-based.

The letterbox system suggests that teachers can keep children's secrets. No decent teacher due to safeguarding awareness would encourage that.

Any parent is allowed to see the lesson content and materials. If schools are reluctant or prevent this you have to think, what are they hiding?

And to add, The Billy, Bella and B example was a sex-based stereotype for toys.

If you DM me OP I'd be happy to send you what I have on Jigsaw.

I will look for your threads, OhHolyJesus. I have a feeling I may be needing them as DC has already told me this year that they have been watching CBBC Newsround in class.
Luckily my DC tend to come home and tell me warts and all about what happened in class, so I have already had the low down on the Jigsaw cuddly toys etc. I have asked them to let me know whenever the toys come out or they have Jigsaw lessons because it sounds ‘interesting’ and we can have chats about the topics at home.

We have a similar approach @Jobsagoodun1, the dinner conversations can be quite revealing as some of this has leaked into RE and assemblies it's been a lesson in itself for me and I now keep a watchful eye.

My son in yr 6 has just had the Jigsaw Transgender lesson on Robert/a Cowell. He was told that Roberta was a woman born in a man's body. But this is Cornwall and the staff have been thoroughly groomed by outsiders to accept this nonsense.

@OhHolyJesus sorry I didn't see your reply before it was deleted. My son spoke privately to his teacher today. He questioned whether anyone could actually be born in the wrong body. His teacher told him off for questioning this, teachers wouldn't tell you something that was wrong, people absolutely could be born in the wrong body. This is a mature male teacher who had a career before going into teaching.

I'm afraid @Quisto this warrants a formal complaint as it's in breach of both the education act (schools cannot be political) and is in conflict with mandatory guidance (needs to be based on robust facts).

If I were you I would also inform OFSTED and wrote to your MP as well as wrote directly to the DoE.

I'm really sorry your son has been treated so badly by an experienced teacher who is a trusted adult. Red flags all over the place!

@OhHolyJesus I knew it was against the new DfE guidance, Cornwall is very captured, Jigsaw is used by the whole county. I had a feeling it was going to go this way but I'm still extremely disappointed.

I don't blame you Quisto, I was sure someone would read the jigsaw lesson plans and see the misogyny and stereotypes straight away. I didn't think I would have to be pointing it out but I did.

It's very disappointing to think that teachers, particularly experienced ones, can't see the impact of the silencing, the removal of asking questions/critical thinking. It is the very opposite of what they should be doing.

I hope you are able to raise this and escalate it as needed. Safe schools alliance would be a good place to turn to for support, which I'm sure you know about already. Mirium Cates may also be interested in hearing your experience...

I've heard another story from a school
I'm Cornwall and it does seem quite captured based on just your example and this other one. Very disturbing.