Lgb focused primary introduction

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HI, have been given the task of introductory assembly during lgb week. Want to ensure the resources don't reinforce stereotypes or gender ideology and comply with dfe guidance.
Before I make my own was wondering if anyone knows of a standard non paying resource, PowerPoint or video etc. Something like tes for example.
If not content wise I'm thinking of looking at the history and which specific rights were fought for and won.

Thanks.

LGB is about sexuality right? I’d personally ask other sensible parents in the school what is their take and go from there.
I’m totally against sexualising children. To me it is comparable to grooming. However if I wouldn’t be given any choice, I’d like to add my two cents.
if you want to discuss their acquired rights, mention how they didn’t interfere with the rights of other groups, or how they didn’t try to convert others into becoming gay.

LGB is about sexuality right? I’d personally ask other sensible parents in the school what is their take and go from there.

I’m totally against sexualising children. To me it is comparable to grooming. However if I wouldn’t be given any choice, I’d like to add my two cents.
if you want to discuss their acquired rights, mention how they didn’t interfere with the rights of other groups, or how they didn’t try to convert others into becoming gay.

And disability week, you are having a laugh. No school I have ever been in does anything beyond a Beethoven assembly. And that was delivered by a member of staff with a disability.

When diversity means able bodied only

Primary Schools are a disgrace. I suppose at least you are the one delivering it and aware of the issues.

Good suggestions from scrolling.

You are assuming this is actually planned in any way shape or form, you clearly have a very different experience of salt. You are assuming schools actually follow their policies in a they rarely do.

Agree. Primary teachers are so brain mushed from galloping through the curriculum that most things are thrown together with little critical thought.

I imagine "activities" have been divvied up between the subject leads who will google / twinkl / facebook ask something (maybe tiktok too now) and set it as a task. Found lgbtq books, anything will do.

The average class teacher won't know the guidelines and that's where the awful sexist books come in. Imo there's more primary aged books on trans than LGB now.

I've not come across any primaries that do this.

Imo it's academy chains. Also areas. Decisions are made from up high and all follow suit. I know a primary subject specialist teacher in an academy chain for whom it's v hard as she probably knows more than who ever is setting the guidance for her subject up top. (Not RSE.)

Some leas still retain a lot of control too. Less likely to get this sort of thing there. Others have lost their control to the academies. It's a shit show.

This is a depressing example of why so many primary schools are dealing with LGBT issues so appallingly. There are no "balanced" age appropriate materials that don't gaslight children that she can access.
Echobelly rightly challenged "too many people falling into the trap of assuming talking about homosexuality is somehow more 'sexual' than talking about heterosexuality" But that's happened because of the outsourcing of SRE materials to self invested adult groups who simply think that children are mini adults and produce so many age inappropriate materials. I'm struggling to articulate this clearly - but there's a major problem when schools have LGBT weeks while the other race, disability, religion etc don't get a look in.

So true WarriorN. It's a shit show because this government have outsourced everything and take no responsibility for offering guidance to schools (bonfire of red tape) and all that. So these very self interested groups simply step into the space. It's a massive gravy train for them and a unique opportunity to gaslight children.

You are assuming this is actually planned in any way shape or form, you clearly have a very different experience of salt. You are assuming schools actually follow their policies in a they rarely do.

I don't recognise this at all. To be honest, OP, it sounds like you're in a school that isn't well run nor organised, rather than this being indicative of primary schools in general. We certainly don't do any particular focus weeks and instead make sure that our curriculum incorporates people from a range of ethnicities, disabilities, sexualities etc. That's definitely what I would view as standard practice.

However, that's no help to you if you're stuck in a school that's going down a tokenistic route. What I'd suggest is that you find out exactly what the aims of that focus week are and what the activities or discussions in classes will be about. That way, your assembly can match that whether it's focusing on the impact of LGB people throughout history, looking at the progress in achieving the same rights as others or something designed to eliminate bullying or discrimination and counter some of the negative attitudes the children may be hearing elsewhere.

Perhaps your assembly could provide some accompanying notes for staff that bullet point the dfe guidance. If you've been asked to lead it I feel you have a steer on this.

You'd have to do ahead of time though to assure any plans are reviewed against the guidelines.,

It's a shit show because this government have outsourced everything and take no responsibility for offering guidance to schools (bonfire of red tape) and all that.

No one realises quite how much everything is outsourced. And how weak the guidance is.

It's been so commonplace over the last 12 years to download lesson plans from anywhere that most things are trysted; especially RSE charities, the majority of which which do not adhere to current guidance on this area.

I was trained pre interactive white boards and computer suites; we made our own lessons plans from v detailed curriculums but the labour gov had them all there for every subject on their website, if needed "off the peg" so to speak. So v centralised - which had some issues but the off the pg lessons (QCA) weren't actually mandatory. It meant online support materials eg bbc matched the lessons.

LEA advisors for subjects had more input into schools, training etc. Only PE and music tended to be bought in schemes, party as they would provide CDs.

Me too Warrior. 12 years ago I spent hours with frantic schools when the new tory government deleted all the comprehensive school guidance and replaced them with a few inadequate paragraphs about bullying, behaviour, exclusions etc. They subsequently had to steadily replace much of it as the depths of their ignorance about education was exposed.
Worryingly the new Secretary of State, Gillian Keegan, displays the same levels of deep ignorance and failure to grasp issues that we saw then.

I agree with pp that if you've been asked to create this assembly you do have some control over it, especially if SLT aren't being ideological but just aren't thinking about it much.

How about using that first assembly to give a broad context? I've seen a class assembly on tolerance, which was absolutely lovely. They talked about what tolerance means, they also talked about what we should and shouldn't tolerate - ie tolerate people's ideas being different from your own, but don't tolerate bullying and discrimination. They suggested 'think about what will happen if you do tolerate it, and what will happen if you don't. Then think through which course of action is right'. Really great.

You could then use examples of LGB families as well as other areas where people are discriminated against. Encouraging children to stand up against bullying is good social behaviour, and recognising that boundaries are positive and that we should think about where those boundaries are for ourselves is both pro-social (helping children develop their own moral compass) and also good for safeguarding.

I wonder whether you could use this as an excuse to talk to other teachers who are preparing material for the following week. If you're setting the context of tolerance, then you could discuss how that can be tied into their work.

You could run it by the SLT first, but I would hope they'd be supportive.

I actually think this is a great opportunity.

You could then use examples of LGB families as well as other areas where people are discriminated against

People being my discriminated against is a vast subject that goes way beyond people who are gay.

Do you mean specific examples of families with gay parents/adoptive parents like Tom Daley?

I don’t see anything here celebrating how wonderful gay people can be as inspiring examples of humanity through what they do and what they are. like. Nothing dispels prejudice as easily as that.

I see too many people falling into the trap of assuming talking about homosexuality is somehow more 'sexual' than talking about heterosexuality.

I'm not assuming anything, I just know what the curriculum already is and wondering what else can be added that isn't sex and romance.

Just reinforcing the rights of people to marry and a brief history, I guess? But you don't want to get too bogged down in the differences between civvy Ps and marriage etc... just 'families can look like this' which afaik is already dealt with at young ages.

It's no wonder that maths and literacy standards are dropping. So much time wasted on attempting to shape children's thinking before they can understand anything, when they could have been learning something vital, or at least useful.

People being my discriminated against is a vast subject that goes way beyond people who are gay.

Of course it is. I'm just suggesting giving the kids some context to understand the rest of what they'll learn that week.

It's setting the frame for why they're going to learn about cool gay people in history, or learn about how gay rights have developed.

And yes, I meant using an example of a family with same sex parents, and also other things to they might recognise so that it all connects in their minds.

Eg should we have a 'father and child activity day'? The consequence is that someone with 2 mums or who lives with their grandparents can't join in. So we won't do that - instead we'll have a family activity day, so that everyone can join in!

JustWaking · Today 16:38
People being my discriminated against is a vast subject that goes way beyond people who are gay.

Of course it is. I'm just suggesting giving the kids some context to understand the rest of what they'll learn that week.

It's setting the frame for why they're going to learn about cool gay people in history, or learn about how gay rights have developed.

I take your point and see it would normally be a starting point, but to me the children seem too young for anything nuanced and some of their own families will be discriminatory against gay people due to their own beliefs.

How old will the youngest children in the assembly be OP, sorry if I’ve missed that?

I meant, ‘Some of their own families may discriminate against gay people….’

Rachel Rooney's book "My Body Is Me" has supplementary activities on her website.

When diversity means able bodied only

Exactly.

our school has never done anything re disability despite almost a quarter of our pupils being classed as having a disability. And having staff with disabilities.

Oh! I didn't know! Will pass on. She also includes disabled bodies in her book, beautifully.

It's no wonder that maths and literacy standards are dropping. So much time wasted on attempting to shape children's thinking before they can understand anything, when they could have been learning something vital, or at least useful.

What sometimes happens is all the foundation subject leads (history, geography, music, art etc) get asked to come up with subject related activities for the classes to choose from. Literacy might choose some class "lgbtq" books to read. Maths and PE generally are immune.

Hence a question about lgbtq artist books for eyfs and y1 in a teaching fb group I saw once.

Maths and literacy standards aren't dropping. What is expected from Y6 children now is a standard that far surpasses what was expected 15+ years ago. In fact, what's expected within writing is more than many adults are capable of, particularly when you consider those attaining at greater depth.

Learning that people in society come in all sorts of different shapes, sizes, colours, cultures and backgrounds is both useful and vital. Children are taught, basically, that people who are gay, lesbian and bisexual exist, can form families and shouldn't be treated differently simply because of their sexuality. That's it. Given the level of homophobic bullying that still takes place in society, but particularly in secondary schools, it's definitely a message that needs repeating again and again. For goodness sake, at the secondary that my school feeds into, the gay-straight alliance club has to move meeting room every week otherwise a small group of other students will try to "catch" the members and out them. Messages of tolerance and acceptance are vital.