Sex not gender, No Outsiders changing the Equality Act, DepHead/DSL captured

[Vebrithien]

Well, here we are, with a whole new thread!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4713725-please-help-gender-not-sex-on-a-school-protected-characteristics-poster-just-spoken-to-the-head?page=10&reply=123546552

Thank you all, so so much for the support you have given me.

I am currently working on the draft of the message I want to send.

Long story short, DD's primary school displays posters by No Outsiders, showing the 9 protected characteristics of the Equality Act. Sex as been replaced with gender.

I have raised this with the Head, the assistant Head, and the Deputy Head (DepHead, as DH just doesn't work here). I have been reassured that sex is synonymous with gender in law, and, through an email stream, No Outsiders have reassured the school that it is deliberate, gender is easier to teach children than sex, especially as some will snigger at sex.

Oh, and teaching that gender is the difference between boys and girls, it makes it easier to then explain gender reassignment later on.

I'll put the message from the DepHead and No Outsiders here, and also my reply, in its current state.

Thank you all again!

Thanks @ZestFest

I really don't know.

There is a male NB teaching assistant using the title Mx

The DepHead seems pretty dedicated to the cause. We had wondered if she has reason (outside of school) to not be impartial, which might be driving it? She is the curriculum lead.

I did also wonder (from the experiences I have in the staffroom myself) if there isn't an element of "poor, benighted, ignorant fools, we know SO much better than you do"

The SLT seem so defensive, and seems to so actively want to isolate us and ignore any issues.

I am so angry and appalled on your behalf. Good luck continuing the good fight and keep us up to speed

There are more of us complaining, than last time.

4 parents from year 4 were added to the resistance today.

We're trying to dig a bit deeper into what the year 5 parents are saying about their children being told by the school to keep their lessons secret.

@Vebrithien I'm so sorry to hear this - I think there must be an activist teacher. The breach of safeguarding is really concerning. Generally speaking, children don't just make up that an adult's told them to keep secrets out of nowhere.

Unfortunately I think you said the governors were captured? But nevertheless, I'd go straight to governors if the HT doesn't address your legitimate concerns.

Apart from anything else, GC belief is protected under the EA 2010 and this has been repeatedly proven in a court of law, so I don't really understand how they think they can only teach one side even if the EA 2010 was the only game in town, which when it comes to children it shouldn't be.

We're trying to dig a bit deeper into what the year 5 parents are saying about their children being told by the school to keep their lessons secret.

That part is extremely concerning if it is true.

So sorry to hear this is ongoing.

Just a thought - I'm sure it's occurred already - but you may find the interim guidance, if not directly relevant (its focus is managing social transitioning in schools), then at least useful:

https://consult.education.gov.uk/equalities-political-impartiality-anti-bullying-team/gender-questioning-children-proposed-guidance/supportingdocuments/Gender%20Questioning%20Children%20%20nonstatutory%20guidance.pdf

My (very limited) understanding is that schools may well reference gender identity as a belief some people hold, & that gender reassignment is, of course, a protected characteristic, so entirely valid to address. Whether or not with those age groups is a different matter, of course!

However, the guidance makes it very clear indeed that this is a complex issue needing extremely careful handling.

A few useful quotes from it, to support the argument that these subjects need to be handled very carefully, from a fully informed & balanced perspective...:

• a highly sensitive, complex issue, which is still not properly understood
• Gender identity: is a contested belief. It is a sense a person may have of their own gender, whether male, female or another category such as non-binary. This may or may not be the same as their biological sex. Many people do not consider that they or others have a gender identity at all.
• Many people believe this concept is one that reinforces stereotypes and social norms relating to sex.
• The Cass Review’s interim report is clear that social transition is not a neutral act, and that better information is needed about the outcomes for children who undertake degrees of social transition... Some forms of social transition will not be compatible with schools’ and colleges’ statutory responsibilities. [an important context to any potentially reductive presentation of transitioning in fiction - I've sat in a presentation in which a "professional" blithely told children of about 11, "Well, of course, nowadays we can choose which sex we want to be!" without any further contextualisation].
• Schools and colleges should not proactively initiate action towards a child’s social transition.

Your utterly infuriating circumstances aside, my feeling about teaching these issues in general is that what matters is how it's presented to the kids. The difficulty is that, currently, anything's possible. A book like this could be taught with a very concerning message of, "Well, anyone can be a boy or a girl regardless of their body - you just choose, and can even have medicine to help you when you're older!" (really not so unrealistic, given that I've witnessed a "professional" blithely telling a group of 11-year-olds, without any further context, "Well, of course, we can choose what sex we are nowadays"). Or maybe it's been accompanied by a more sensible, "Some people believe... and we should treat them with respect..." BUT the fact is that even this more nuanced latter quietly pushes unquestioning affirmation, when a child has a right to their own perception of reality and a need to differentiate the sexes!, shows just how damn complex this is.

Your agreements re: communication from school represented their acknowledgement of this - and if they've reneged on actual guarantees relating to this, that's really not on.

Hope the above helps in investigating & countering any waffle directed at your group or the kids!

Oh, also:

4. Schools and colleges have specific legal duties that are framed by a child’s biological sex. While legislation exists that allows adults to go through a process to change their legal sex, children’s legal sex is always the same as their biological sex.

So acknowledging biological sex - being utterly transparent about it & ensuring there's no confusion - is surely fundamental.

Questions may be the way forward as first steps: how was gender identity defined? do students understand biological sex? did the teacher make it clear that transition is a complex undertaking? etc.

Oh no Veb, that's so frustrating. Do you have any contact with the Parent Governors in case you don't get any joy with the head?

Thank you, we've got a folder where all possible evidence and research is being saved. We've all read the proposed guidance, and feel that it is largely appropriate.

I agree that there are ways and means of addressing the GI that could be appropriate and questioning. Our concerns is that this resource was picked especially for LGBTQ+ History Month, and parents were not informed (as promised last year). So far, there hasn't been a single resource used on anything LGB.

We feel betrayed.

I am of no use on school matters but I shall do my pom pom waving!

That's a good letter!

Totally agree and get where you're coming from, Veb. Also, did think you'd almost certainly read & analysed everything with a fine toothcomb already - it sounds like you & your team have been amazing. It's just so frustrating...

Thanks @Boiledbeetle

We've got a medical doctor, a biochemist, a nuclear physicist, a university ethics lecturer, a forest school leader, a sparky, a secondary science teacher, three different faiths and none.

It's a pretty amazing mix of people.

That's a great email - hope it has the desired effect.

This is awful for you and the other parents who have worked so hard to promote a fact based, reasonable, and transparent approach to teaching the Equality Act at school.

It is striking that it was only yesterday another poster on another thread was talking about another school where the was a similar breach of trust and transparency by bringing in that same book. Or am I confused?

It is an appalling, dishonest book, quite apart from the underhandedness of bringing it in without warning.

And thank you @Catiette

Sorry, I forgot to say how admirably clear but polite your letter is.

I started a thread at the weekend, "She's my dad", to find out if anyone had any experiences of the book.

Would be interested to know if there is another school doing the same.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4999522-shes-my-dad?reply=132783261

Thank you for explaining. I had thought it was another poster, and you only joined the thread.

Anyway, good luck to you.

That's a good letter, Vebrithien - I kind of expect your next update to be that they replied, "Blah blah, bullshit, keeping to the standards etc...."

But I hope not.

Hi Vebrithian so sorry to hear this hydra has popped up again in your DD’s school. I just wanted to say that the ‘keep things secret that are said in this class’ thing sounds familiar to me. My children also had Jigsaw materials in their primary school and I went in and looked through them - would have been Year 4 or 5 I’m not sure which. I think there is a section which could easily be read two ways, by either children (v likely at that age) or even teachers if they are not sufficiently up on safeguarding. It’s something like:

’this is a safe space - that means that what is shared or spoken about in this class mustn’t be shared with others outside the class’.

Might be worth another look at the year 4/5 materials as a clear safeguarding clash.

I raised it with our head to ensure teachers added a bit to explain that children could tell their parents what they talked about in class, but that spreading gossip about other children around the school was never appropriate as it could be bullying.

Head said should parents hear about what other children said, but I also asked them what would the normal safeguarding protocols for a teacher be if a pupil disclosed something concerning or alarming during ANY lesson, and why should it be different in this particular class?

I got Head to agree there was potential safeguarding issue, and that teachers in particular could never keep secrets from parents unless it was a serious concern to be raised with social services. As far as I know, the ‘keeping secrets’ bit disappeared from our school lesson plans: but mine are now in secondary so it may have crept in. I think schools alas often get so enthusiastic about being welcoming and inclusive that they forget that safeguarding by definition has to apply to all situations, especially as it is never (in my experience) mentioned at the same time or in the same spaces as the EDI training.

'gender reassignment' characteristic and that it was our understanding that this had increased with more recent legal cases to include gender expression and gender identity.

This was mentioned way back when Veb started the thread. Funnily enough (or not so funny) this exact wording was used in my recent Human Rights training, which was one of those online tick the correct boxes to pass types. In the PCs section we’re told that “Gender Reassignment’ now means gender identity as this is how it’s commonly understood. The training video has been bought from an outside provider. Unclear whom. I’m nervous to comment as our HE has already been ‘queered’ (its own words) but this training is for every single employee. Thousands.

So is there any actual information on this? Has anyone indicated (in law) that GR means gender identity as a protected characteristic?

This is Stonewall law - the law as transactivists would like it to be rather than what it actually says.
For a company to misrepresent the law to thousands of employees is pretty serious - especially when it has such serious negative consequences for women and children:
https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights

We’re probably a SW champion. Maybe I’ll ask for clarification. However it feels dangerous to even do that these days.

Is there anyone senior you could approach with a " on reflection this organisation seems to be misrepresenting the law. Just wondering whether the company realises this as employees repeating this can bring a company into disrepute?"

There may be something in Naomi Cunningham's analysis of the risks companies take when they indulge in Stonewall's fake law?

But just a suggestion - safeguarding your employment has to be your first priority

https://www.legalfeminist.org.uk/2021/06/06/legal-risks-for-stonewall-members/