What -if anything- can I say to the school about this?

[ClawedButler]

Just had a leaflet home about the external company coming into the primary school to do PSHE. They mention "LGBTQ" issues are covered in a separate leaflet. I requested it, and while I agree with most of what's in there (about sexism and homophobia and discrimination etc.) I am really unsure about what they will be saying about transgenderism. This reads to me that it's being taught as fact, not as an ideology, and it makes transitioning sound like a gentle, benign process.

I'm not happy about this, but don't know how to approach the school, or even if I can?

‘Some transgender people choose to change their appearance or body so their gender matches with how they feel.’
Well that’s confusing. I know I am a woman so I feel like one but my appearance today is quite male presenting as I am wearing Dh’s tshirt. What am I?

I think there is some stuff people can point towards on jigsaw as I have heard that name before.

I'd have a look at the Safe Schools Alliance website - they had some helpful stuff when I was challenging my (non compliant) school's teaching materials. (Jigsaw have definitely been in trouble on this before now).

It would be a reasonable request to ask to view the lesson beforehand. Do they still offer that before the ‘sex’ lesson? Been a few years since had a child in upper primary.

Worrying conflating of sex and gender....

This looks like a Jigsaw resource. They don't come into schools themselves but a lot of schools subscribe to their resources. Lots of threads on here about Jigsaw (including one from me). I successfully got dds school to withdraw a dodgy Yr 2 lesson.

You could ask them not to promote sex stereotypes that are damaging to all children.

You could also ask them to teach that not everyone believes in an inner 'gender identity' at all, it is widely contested and not fact.

You could say that they should also include how children are free to say what they see and not be forced / compelled / bullied into saying things they don't believe and don't believe to be the truth by other people.

Specifically which part don't you like or agree with?

Jigsaw are very secretive about their materials - typical of a private company maximising their profits. Transgender Trend uncovered a little bit about them here:
https://www.transgendertrend.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Teaching-gender-ideology-in-schools.pdf

We desperately need clear, age appropriate materials written by those with a knowledge of child development, psychology etc - not commercial materials written by private profit making companies and queer theory activists.

I'd remove from the lesson or from school that day if this is not an option.

It also sounds as if they may give children the idea one can actually change one’s sex - as well as, as you say, that it is a literally cosmetic process, rather than involving drugs, surgery, & all the implications thereof.

As an aside, how exactly is a child supposed to make sense of “some people feel their body doesn’t match their inner sense of their gender, but they do nothing to change their appearance while expecting others to ‘respect’ their announced new identity”. I don’t understand it. It reminds me slightly of one of those lightbulb-changing jokes: one where the punchline is about moving the whole room round…

That supposed description of 'transgender' is nonsense.

'A transgender person doesn't feel their body matches with their gender.'

What do they mean by 'gender'? How is their body supposed to match it?

'A person who was born with a male body may feel they are a female.'

Why would they 'feel' this? A person with a male body is a male. If they 'feel they are a female' what is happening here? A delusion? A misunderstanding about what male and female are?

'There can be all sorts of reasons why this happens.'

Oh yes. Some of these are totally unsuited to being discussed in a primary school classroom. But what sort of reasons are they going to present to these children? Stereotypes? 'Born in the wrong body'?

I don't think the tone of that is that bad. But they need to be clear on the difference between sex and gender if they are teaching this stuff to kids.

If they are teaching about "discrimination", then they should probably mention that it's highly controversial what does or doesn't amount to unfair discrimination when it comes to transgenderism.

You could say that they should also include how children are free to say what they see and not be forced / compelled / bullied into saying things they don't believe and don't believe to be the truth by other people.

Yes, good point. No one should be bullied for social transitioning, but you also can't require everyone else to believe that child X is really a girl or boy.

I’d be really interested in Jigsaw’s take on what the Equality Act requires schools to do as various organisations have misrepresented the law in this area. For instance, is a school obliged to treat a pupil who says they are transgender as if they were of the opposite sex? (My understanding is ‘no’ as children cannot apply for a GRC, thus cannot change their legal sex.)

I am wondering if anyone can shed some light. My kids school will be starting jigsaw from September. I had a look at some of the lesson plans. All of the meditation and chiming looks very cult like to me. Also the fact the lessons are wholly scripted doesn’t sit right with me. I have not come across this lesson plan yet. We were given a general overview. I have been looking online at different resources and trying to piece together what this programme is. The website doesn’t give much information about how this programme was constructed and who are the contributors

They say they are teaching it because of the Equality Act.

In the Equality Act, it is gender reassignment which is protected.

As no child can legally have their gender reassigned ie get a Gender Recognition Certificate, there is no need to teach this to under 18s.

I’m about to enter into the fray with our school. They are using 1Decision to deliver the PHSE programme. On the face of it, they seem ok, what I’ve seen from the short clips from the videos goes as follows: girl/boy, vagina/penis - so far so good. But the full videos aren’t available.

School sent out the outline of the programme and invited parents to view the teaching materials at school and become part of the PHSE parent focus group. I naturally contacted the school and said I’d like to see the materials and be involved. At first they seemed really keen for me to be involved and promised to send dates when I could go in asap. Two weeks later nothing, despite a reminder! They might be really busy with it being the end of term, but I also make no secret of being a feminist, so I’m slightly suspicious.

I’ve done a bit of my own research on 1Decision and found a questionable blog about LGBTQAI + and the following from 1Decision, note Early Years:

‘We believe in the importance of comfortable self-expression, which is why our Early Years Programme includes a non-binary Rainbow Drop in our storybooks: Rainbow. We believe in helping children to understand that people identify in ways beyond male and female. Merely acknowledging this is a great start to building an understanding of the modern world.’

This naturally has me concerned as the website content seemed ok, this stuff seems to be sneaked into blogs.

There is advice on Safe Schools Alliance's website to help with approaching the school about this.
https://safeschoolsallianceuk.net/schools-resources-and-policies/

Thanks all for these resources, I'm going to have a good look at it. I don't want to be "that parent", but at the same time I am worried about this. I don't want it taught as fact (in, as PPs have said, a confusing way) when it's an ideology. It would be the same if they were teaching, say, creationism as fact.

Am I in a position to ask the school when specific subjects will be covered?

TBH I think this is pretty tame and neutral.

A transgender person doesn't feel their body matches with their gender.

Some transgender people choose to change their appearance or body so their gender matches with how they feel.

This is the bit that would bother me and that I wouldn't want adults in positions of authority telling my children.

It's the slippery use of "gender" (common in transgenderist propaganda[

Most youngish kids don't know what "gender" means. Come to that, a lot of adults don't either. And here it's being used with a lack of clairity that is at best unhelpful and at worst deliberate obfuscation.

It also starts from a position of total acceptance of trans / gender / transgenderism as a "thing" that is generally agreed upon / understood by everyone in the same way. When of course transgernderism is a socio-political ideology. The tone is factual but the content is anything but. It's propaganda.

I would say exactly that to the school and I would ask them not to entertain the idea of putting confusing ideological statements to children in their place of education.

I think it's DESIGNED to come across as tame and neutral, but it doesn't take more than a cursory read to see that they are teaching a highly controversial, hotly contested and potentially physically damaging subject as if it were fact.

Which is precisely why you need to challenge it.

It’s okay to be “that parent” - it means you care about what your child is being exposed to at school.

Well said. Sadly too many schools have outsourced their critical thinking on this- not surprising given the capture at Union, DfE etc level. So it's now up to parents to step by step challenge certain schools about their delusional beliefs about gender / socially transitioning children etc and to insist that they stop teaching gender woowoo as factual.