Oasis Community Learning - would they tell parents about the child's gender issues?

[ChristinaXYZ]

Interesting piece by ponne of their LGBTQ+ co-ordinators

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/solutions-a-whole-trust-approach-to-lgbtq-safeguarding/

Earlier the statement on whether they would tell parents read:

"in the majority of situations we would not discuss a pupil’s gender identity with parents".

It now says:

Correction: After publication, Oasis said a paragraph that stated they would not normally discuss a pupil’s gender identity with parents was incorrect and not their policy. They have since amended this paragraph to instead state while they recognise the importance of supporting young people’s right to self-expression, no action is taken until a compromise has been achieved with parents.

There is still so much wrong with this though:

It now reads: where there is conflict, we recognise the importance of supporting young people’s right to self-expression. However, our academies will not take any action until a compromise with parents has been achieved.

But I am baffled where they get the idea that young people have a "right" to self-expression. What does that even mean? And who are they (the school) to assert a 'compromise'? What pressure are they putting on parents to agree to a 'compromise'. Are there any circumstances where the school would accept a straight forward 'no' to social transition from the parents - surely if there is genuine compromise rather than bullying on behalf of the school that this would sometimes happen? Does it?

If my child attended one of this trust's schools I would be furious.

You can see the Trusts' schools here - all over the England.

https://www.oasiscommunitylearning.org/our-academies-main/our-academies

Hmm. There's a flurry of activist teachers saying the quiet bit out loud. Very surprising that the Trust put her up as an expert only to discover that she doesn't understand basic principles around working with parents.

The Guardian also recently showcased a teacher with a vested self interest in transitioning children who's been allowed to overstep professional boundaries, openly transitioning children in her school without parental knowledge or consent. See "Beth" in this article:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/08/trans-pupils-put-school-policies-test-heated-debate-england?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I find it very odd that Schools Week would get something so very specific and clearly stated so wrong. Perhaps it was a “first draft”.

Not convinced the original statement wasn’t the more accurate one…

I suspect you're right @rogdmum and that the first draft reflected what happens in the school and the correction is trust managers having a bit of a panic about the optics.

That arrogance displayed by Beth in that guardian article @MrsOvertonsWindow is breath-taking. There she is part social worker, part doctor, part pyschoanalyst, part paediatrician, occasional teacher and, it seems, 100% parent of all her charges. and no damn qualifications for any of it, except teaching and I suspect she is not very good at that what with her lack of critical thinking skills and self-knowledge.

It's horrifying. She's also the parent of a son who said he was a girl from the age of 11 - which presumably is where she gets her self identified "expertise " from. The fact that senior staff have allowed her to run amok, transitioning children in secret without telling parents, has set up a system of "trained mentors" and communication systems based around which parents staff must tell lies to and hide information about their child's wellbeing from, is unbelievable.

Only the courts can remove parental rights! Not Beth or Beth's school or anyone in education working in narcissistic isolation.

"Only the courts can remove parental rights!Not Beth or Beth's school or anyone in education working in narcissistic isolation."

Well said Mrs O.

I recall a poster recently whose daughter had desisted but felt she couldn’t tell the school (it was about names on exam certificates). I’m sure there was mention of an activist teacher. I imagine someone very like Beth.

A right to self expression?

most academies seem the absolute opposite of self expression.

Yes, that's the trouble isn't it. It creates this pressured system. Once on the path they put you on with their cheers and acceptance assemblies and bravery and clapping how do you ever turn round again if you realise you've taken the wrong road?

It really is a kind of child abuse. Such a delicate, difficult, personal topic should never be the focus in the cauldron of school, exams, hormones and friendship-politics of the group-think of your teen years.

To be fair as an ex-teacher in a family of teachers I think there has been, until the last couple of years, as much diversity in the way acadamies are run as in comprehensives. But the problem ironically has been the whole EDI craze. Academies that are part of large trusts have, like private schools, embraced all the lingo of diversity much quicker than the old LEA comps, tiny trusts or one off academies. As a result they are no now all much the same in culture.

I suspect, like NHS trusts it is because they have a large cohort of youngish middle managers with not enough to actually do - so they justify their role this way. They have too many staff whose main job is no longer face-to-face teaching or dealing with parents. Also if they are busy with EDI by tick box and inspirational assembly they can avoid difficult hard to fix stuff like discipline and universal access to the curriculum for kids with old fashioned learning difficulties (as opposed to the new neurodiversity) or physical disabilities.

When I trained to teach in the '90s inclusion meant including the disabled and the disadvantaged. Those kids and their familes seem very much forgotten now.

I've just realised there is a hidden post still on here. I cannot imagine what I've said to cause that. I word everything very carefully. It is frustrating.