Any tips on going into bat with schools about their gender teaching/policies?

[Bellaisoneluckywoman]

Am after any tips. My daughter's school is hurtling down the TWAW and all that entails route and I've made an appointment to go and speak to the pastoral/wellbeing head about my concerns. Just wondered if anyone else had done something similar and if they had any suggestions of the best way to approach it.

Yes! See this thread. Poster has had great success with her child's school and lays out what worked.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4684885-school-curriculum-a-personal-win?page=4

Fabulous - huge thanks for this.

My advice is to get yourself elected as parent governor. 🤫

My tip is to be really well prepared and very clear about what you want them to do. Keep it tight if you're not sure which side they're on. When I met the Head of DS's school I specifically said I was talking as a parent with concerns about RSE materials - no matter what my opinions on gender ideology might be. I said I wanted to keep the discussion within the limits of what is law, what is in DfE guidance and what is safeguarding best practice. They were actually very receptive and glad for the help! Result was an agreement to review the whole PSHE policy 👍

Absolutely worth doing! Good luck!

Use terms that put fear into the heart of school management: Ofsted and safeguarding. Keep linking everything back to those. Do you have the links to the select committee hearing with the Head of Ofsted? She said lots of stuff in support on non political teaching resources and proper safeguarding for trans id students. There is a thread, I will try to link. Schools care about 'being kind' but they care more about getting a bad Ofsted.

Here you go www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4683127-miriam-cates-asks-ofsted-about-age-appropriate-rse-materials-political-impartiality-and-guidance-on-dealing-with-pupils-with-gender-distress

Huge thanks for sending that link, Valancy. Excellent point about keeping Ofsted and safeguarding at the heart of all discussions.

That's my thread OP. DM me if I can be of any help. I've tackled both my primary and secondary schools so happy to share experiences, bounce ideas around, if that's useful?

I am currently just about to email our nursery (our child is 3 😡) about trans flags, aspirational pictures of Laurel Hubbard, etc - wasn't sure whether to start another thread so sorry if I'm hijacking yours, OP! But would be really grateful of any tips for Early Years settings too, as all the DfE/Ofsted stuff is about RSHE from primary upwards. Presumably it's because they think it would be batshit for EY settings to even think about raising this stuff, but it means that it's less clear what their obligations are.

I'm thinking of mainly going down the HOW IS THIS AGE-APPROPRIATE? route, with nods to gender stereotyping (which they agree is a bad thing), and safeguarding (against child protection to tell kids they should lie to be kind), but any thoughts welcome.

This is completely age inappropriate SelfPortraitWithHagstone

Young children (early years) should not be confronted with political symbols (trans flags) age inappropriate concepts (born in the wrong body), or material from adult groups with a queer theory agenda.

All the suggestions from posters above apply If the nursery is attached to a school - especially safeguarding. If it's an independent nursery then the same issues apply but I'd be removing my child from a place that pays no attention to safeguarding young children and allows adult staff to indulge in dangerous age inappropriate ideological fantasies.

@SelfPortraitWithHagstone This might be useful www.transgendertrend.com/schools-resources/child-development/

@Bellaisoneluckywoman I trust you've seen the wealth of info at safeschoolsallianceuk.net/

I would ask to see the resources on 'LGBT' issues and 'gender identity'. Ask them whether they teach that not everyone believes in the concept of 'gender identity' and you could bring in the Forstater case.

You could also ask them how they deal with students who are making requests for change of name/pronouns, and, dare I say, use of opposite sex facilities.

Check whether their Equality policy uses sex and gender correctly and in line with the Equality Act.

Good luck!

Hmmm. I mean, any head you're speaking to will be way more knowledgeable about ofsted and safeguarding than most people- so throwing those words round randomly will not strike the fear of god into them. It may make you look like a tit, however. I'm saying that brutally- but hopefully to save embarrassment.

Absolutely go in if you want. It's your right, and I've never met a pastoral head who didn't welcome parental involvement in PSHCE.

....,however, some of the many emails you have had to go through may be as a result of confusion. This is not an important issue at all on the curriculum. Really. I think I saw maybe one sentence on it, as part of one PowerPoint slide, last year. There is so much to cover that is considered vital and significant, it really isn't going to feature very highly in any programme.

Whereabouts is your school?

We were emailed round our new updated Transgender School Guidance a few weeks ago - dated September 2022, it was drafted in consultation with Sex Matters. I don't know how widespread it is yet or whether my LA is ahead of the curve, but surely others will soon follow? It is so different to the previous guidelines it must be evidence of a massive sea change to come?

Check out the school's guidance on the Sex Matters website.

I have no idea how influential MPs are in LA policies when it comes to schools guidance, but my (Conservative) MP was totally on board when I spoke to her about self ID, Mermaids etc.

@Curioushorse

your response is a bit confusing, what emails are you referring to? The OP hasn’t said anything about emails.

Its great to hear that your school is hardly mentioning gender identity but this this not the case everywhere and OP has clearly said that her school is rabbiting TWAW. That is a major problem.

In my school it is everywhere, and the kids talk about it every day, so guidance is definitely needed. I am especially concerned about older students ignoring DfE guidelines and signposting younger students to mermaids, or affirming them in their gender identity without consent of parents through school clubs and mentoring.

Any school with a cohort of gender questioning students will need guideance, urgently, because they will want to use toilets and changing rooms every day.

And that's before we even get to the staff.....

Hmmm. I mean, any head you're speaking to will be way more knowledgeable about ofsted and safeguarding than most people- so throwing those words round randomly will not strike the fear of god into them. It may make you look like a tit, however.

In the sense that safeguarding random ofsteds in a sentence with "safeguarding" and "Ofsted" would definitely make you ofsted like a tit, you are safeguarding right, Horse. 😁I'm not sure that's exactly what the poster had in mind, though - I suspect women here, who have taken the time to educate themselves, have the resources at their fingertips and are consciously girding themselves for a possible fight have an unusually good command of their arguments. As I read it, the point was more about focusing on the clear, legitimate and evidence-based ways that this relates to safeguarding and Ofsted's guidance - rather than, say, getting diverted into women's sports or rapists in women's prisons. And although I would absolutely hope that headteachers would be the experts in this stuff, even if we didn't have a wealth of evidence to suggest they're not always completely aware of the issues, it would be naive to think that every one of them has the time and headspace (or inclination) to think about this carefully and become experts. That's why, presumably, they outsource PSHE in the first place. And Valancy for one can testify to the fact that when some teachers do get better information they see the dangers and change course.

Thank you all for suggestions! I've got Transgender Trend and SSA (and Spielman's replies to Miriam Cates) bookmarked in case this develops further... Not to mention Forstater but 🤞 we won't get that far. (No offence, Maya. 😁) I love the nursery otherwise and am hoping against hope that as soon as they realise there's an issue they'll decide it's simply not worth arguing about. Wish me luck...

Thank you @SelfPortraitWithHagstone that is indeed what I meant! I have successfully got dds primary school to ditch some awful Jigsaw lessons and got my own school to re-draft their trans policy taking Cass into account. So I do know what I'm talking about.