Boarding Schools - are they captured?

[hatwild]

I'm interested in Sevenoaks, Shrewsbury, Wellington College and King's, Canterbury. Anyone heard about dodgy PSHE lessons or whatever in any of these schools?

Just posting to boost

Not heard anything but I met with the head before my DD13 started at her private/boarding school and she said she wouldn't be having anything about gender identity in any lessons. Two years later and still good.

My advice is to have a meeting.

Not one of those schools but on a recent visit to Ashford school I was pleased to see the protected characteristics correctly listed on a poster on a classroom wall.

Just looked at the Ashford School motto - seems a very appropriate GC motto actually 😁

Boarding schools are screwed if the trans ideology takes hold in the school. Unless they have all single sex bedrooms (and many more do nowadays to be fair) few parents would accept a boy self ID ing as a girl sleeping, showering etc alongside their daughters 24/7.

Esse quam videri 🤔

Thank you! That is heartening. Are you comfortable letting me know which school? If not, no worries.

That is promising!

True. But I found an article that mentioned Wellington College re CRT which worries me thecritic.co.uk/issues/august-september-2021/schoolboy-error/ I'm actually on a fact finding mission for a parent based overseas. If he has the guts to just straight up ask the schools that's probably the best thing I suppose. Inside info always useful tho as schools are not always 100% honest when it comes to this stuff.

Afaik, single sex schools have all held to being single sex - I think they may be constrained by law (no schoolchild can have a GRC though I suppose there may be the odd Scottish sixth former ere long). So that probably helps

Are you still looking for schools that reject BLM?

Apologies OP - I was being a bit casually "single issue" in my response . There's no doubt that independent schools are as captured as others in terms of LGBT plus ideology and signing up to Stonewall. But I've no idea how the boarding schools are managing it - I would hope that the awareness of sexual harassment, assault and safeguarding is prioritised - but given how easily other schools abandon the rights of girls, possibly boarding schools do this too?
There's no doubt that signing up to be a Stonewall champion fosters a hostile environment for girls and women with their sex based rights, language and identity being deemed as transphobic.

My dd boarded and dealt very sensitively with a trans student, they had a suitable space in each boarding house that could be used by male or female (not in either section) which was fully accessible too in case of injury mostly

This was covered in some detail on the other thread.

BLM as a message that stands against racism - no problem.

BLM as the political movement is problematic in some areas. Acknowledging this does not make one a racist.

Sorry OP didn't see your ask. I'm in Oxfordshire and it's an all girls school (well, it's mixed until year 6 but all girls from year 7 and for boarding)

Just have the conversation with the Head. If you want to know the school though you can DM me. I don't want to publicly say which one because TRAs target "non compliance"

Has anyone got any updated intel on this topic please?

I was thoroughly put off by Bryanston because of their 27 page transgender policy.

KS Canterbury: more sensible: they know what the protected characteristics are, no transgender woo on the PSHE curriculum.

Wellington: a model in vagueness: doesn’t rule anything in or out, basically says anything that comes up will be dealt with on a “case by case” basis, whatever that means. But then the policy suggests Mermaids as a resource so 🙄

These schools really need some clearer Government guidance.

my friend works in a boarding school, and one with trans pupils
they can board in the house of the gender they identify as, as on trips, but only share rooms/facilities with close friends and those who’s parents have given consent (although in reality most have a single room)

they’ve had no issues whatsoever with this policy, from any pupils or parents

there’s also some mixed gender boarding houses, which makes it much easier to navigate (pupils can choose to go there, or if they prefer they can choose a single gender house)

mixed gender - I take it you mean mixed sex

unless it’s a single sex school in which case the pupils can identify as whichever of the 100 genders they like

It’s mixed gender, eg some pupils would say they were non binary but their sex is male

I get the point you’re making, but I don’t agree with you and I stand by my description. I also don’t think having mixed gender houses is infringing on single sex spaces (as I said, trans pupils share facilities with a small group who give consent and not the whole house)

Are pupils allowed to withdraw consent without consequence or drama?

I don’t really understand what you mean by mixed gender - are all AFAB nonbinary pupils in with the AMAB nonbinary pupils? Because that would be ‘single gender’ by your definition… or do you ‘mean mixed sex but only for people with with special gender identities’ or ‘mixed sex with or without a gender identity’?

You must have one hell of a safeguarding policy as I’m not sure it’s actually legal to have ‘single gender but mixed sex’?

Having been a boarder myself, and at a school where more recently a locked gate had to be put in between the girls and boys houses because of very many issues, I don’t know how these schools could manage this effectively.

I don't think Sevenoaks is. Application procedure very clear on sex being binary with no nonsense options.

It’s almost as if language matters.

Having read and re-read this, I translate it as:

The houses are single sex, but trans pupils can choose to board in the opposite sex house if their roommates and their roommates’ parents agree. In practice most trans pupils have their own room in the opposite sex house, suggesting that few pupils (or their parents) agree to share with them. I wonder what happens about bathrooms.

Other trans pupils choose to remain in their correct sex house, but call it a mixed gender house.

I do wonder which sex pupils choose which.

@Neverforgetwhothisisfor any updates on Kings Canterbury with the new head? Hopefully their sensible approach will continue?

This sounds awful.

I went to boarding school and friendships can become very intense as there is no scope to have school friends and outside school friends. Friendship group fall outs can feel catastrophic. I spent many hours talking through issues with my own daughter. When I was a teenager I was on my own with no one to confide in, and talking to my peers now we were probably all unhappy, each in our different ways and without the maturity/empathy to reach out and support each other.

The idea that friendship groups get to choose who they share a dormitory with, and that might include a transgirl, is really wrong.

You are a less confident member of a friendship group. The alpha female is very "be kind" and suggests you all share a dorm with someone who you knew as a boy, and still perceive as a boy. You know you really don't want to have to share an intimate space with them. You may, say, be going through puberty and struggling with body image. So what do you do. Accept that you have to relax, what in safeguarding terms are, reasonable boundaries, or find yourself in social Siberia. Bad enough at a day school but completely awful when there is no famiy or bedroom of your own to escape to.

I really wonder about some posters here. I get being kind to a child struggling with their gender identity. But the same empathy needs to be applied to other children. Do they have no memory of the sheer awfulness of being a 13 year old girl who is unhappy.