Today I found my bravery!

[Vebrithien]

Waiting for my DD to come out from her after-school club, in her primary school. Saw the poster below. Whilst I was looking, the deputy head of the school was also collecting his DC at the same time, and said hello, asked if I was okay.

I pointed out to him that the wording was incorrect (gender, not sex, as it should be). He asked about what it was in the Equalities Act. I confirmed that the Equalities Act states sex, not gender. Therefore, the poster was not showing the 9 protected characteristics correctly, as they are stated in law (and everything else was named correctly 😡)

He thanked me for bringing it to his attention, as it wasn't something that they had produced, but as it was showing in their school, it did need to be correct.

I'll be checking again, next week, for the poster, when I next collect DD.

Just reading it!

Thanks - really useful background on the origin and intentions of No Outsiders.

Sadly (because it's in nobody's interests to view charities with suspicion, especially those demanding access to schools) when you look behind the scenes you'll find a depressing number of adults who have no business working near children. Examples include breaching safeguarding principles / paedophile adjacent (Challenor / Stonewall), dodgy porn advocates (girl guides), Mermaids staff (paedophile "apologist" / online provider of nude porn photos).

It seems that "bring your whole self to work" & "be kind" has morphed into a refusal by organisations to set any boundaries for adults seeking to influence children - which history tells us is catastrophic. A school who employed these people would be shut down - yet there's a massive loophole for organisations working in / with / providing materials for schools.

It seems that "bring your whole self to work" & "be kind" has morphed into a refusal by organisations to set any boundaries for adults seeking to influence children - which history tells us is catastrophic. A school who employed these people would be shut down - yet there's a massive loophole for organisations working in / with / providing materials for schools.

True, although Moffat was employed in schools and his involvement at the 2008 No Outsiders seminar Queering the Body; Queering Primary Education is somewhat worrying given the questions posed included "At what cost do we deny children’s and teacher’s sexuality? What do we lose if desire and pleasure are banned from the classroom? What is the place of the research team members’ own bodies, desires and pleasures in this research?" As the Transgender Trend piece noted, "Reading these questions, you have to keep reminding yourself that the bodies in question are those of adults and the children aged 5 to 11 who are in their care to learn".

Of course, participation in the seminar doesn't mean that he shared all of the views expressed - but the project it related to was clearly central to the teaching materials he went on to produce and Queer Theory appears to run through the project, the seminar, and his publications.

Well, the poster was still up, yesterday evening.
I'm going to give it until Thursday, and then send a message. Expressing my disappointment.

Any hints on what I should send?