Any (primary) school governors about? - governing body want training in EDI

[GCgovernor]

Hi. Long time lurker here but this is the first time I've actually decided to sign up and post, as there may be people on this board who can help me where google can not.

I'm a primary school governor. Reasonably well-versed on the issues of gender ideology (in a large part thanks to MN!). Our school are reasonably new into this issue (probably due to our demographic - not going to give outing details) but aware it's something we need to engage with. Our school is very inclusive in other matters - SEND particularly (despite being a 'high achieving' mainstream school).

Reviewing some policies recently and what I'm getting is people worried that we can't say certain things (wanted to remove references to 'boys' and 'girls'), but I think it's very much motivated by the desire to be doing the right thing 'legally'/according to guidance, even if it is different to their personal beliefs. I kept raising the use of gender in several policies, which I think in our case is usually just in there as a synonym for sex, (and no one's thought about the difference until now), but in some of the policies I was met with 'well this is the Local Authority wording - we've taken it from there, we need to go with what they advise.' The don't want to change some policies (ones I have issue with) until there is updated guidance out.

The conclusion was reached that we need some training on ED&I. They (possibly quite reasonably!) won't just take my word for things (I wrote an email setting out how gender is not protected by the Equality Act and the implications for our 'legal' duty to (i.e. lack thereof) to affirm gender, and setting out the safeguarding and inclusion issues relating to the issue). I shared links to Safe Schools Alliance and Transgender Trend by I don't know if anyone read them!

So....does anyone know of any governor training (e.g. webinar) about ED&I that is not full of gender ideology, that would help give our governors some authoritative guidance?!

Thanks :)

Here's the Sex Matters guidance for schools OP which is quite helpful:
sex-matters.org/posts/updates/schools-guidance/

I would suggest 2 things. Ensure that any EDI training is education specific and about children. Do your due diligence and ensure that any trainer / organisation is education facing / experienced in how equalities play out in schools.
Maybe start with your school data. What does the school's attainment, attendance, pastoral, bullying etc data tell you about your school and the children's needs? That should inform (in addition to getting a general overview of Inclusion issues) what specific challenges face your children. THAT is what should determine the focus of training for governors - the needs of your intake as opposed to the demands of external adult organisations. So SEN, disability, race, sex and religion, class are likely to be of far more importance to the school and children than vacuous discussions about pronouns and adult identities.

When I was a governor, we had some training and it included 'Equalities Act.... protected characteristics....gender....' When I pointed out that the act refers to sex and gender reassignment, there was literally a 30 second silence, an audible intake of breath, then 'Moving on to....'

Just because a LA offers training, doesn't mean it will be right, imo.

Ah thanks - that's a good document to have a look through. I'd forgotten the sex matters website as well.

In terms of our needs, there are several gender non-conforming children in the lower years, and I think governors will be thinking about their needs. I'm thinking about their needs to - to have their health safeguarded! (As well as the needs of the other children...)

Agree! We have lots of training offered to us from Strictly Education. But it's very difficult to tell what tack a training course will take. Therefore wondered if anyone knows of a good one!

Honestly, EDI is a boil on the arse of humanity. Barry would I am sure do some training for you. This is his you tube channel.

Usual place for governor training is the National Governor Association (NGA) website
www.nga.org.uk/Home.aspx

or Modern Governor
www.moderngovernor.com

I'm a primary school governor and also a gender critical lawyer with an interest in equality. I've sat through a lot of rubbish EDI training for governors. I haven't found anything decent.

So I don't have any recommendations, but I would suggest trying to find something that's focussed on the governor's role. A lot of EDI training is quite generic and focussed on what the protected characteristics are, rather than looking at the issues that might arise in a school setting and the role of governors in relation to that. Schools also have specific duties under the EA.

I got the school where I'm a governor to change gender to sex in policies just by pointing out that sex is the term used in the Equalities Act and by the DfE. But they're an academy so much less bothered by what the LA think.

Have you tried asking the school what they do to combat gender stereotyping, as recommended by DfE?