A small victory- sex ed in Scottish schools

[Hagiography]

Last year my DD came home from school having had her first sex ed lesson.

'Some girls don't get periods' she said, cheerfully. 'So I might not get them'.

In Scotland, we can access and read all the materials used for RSHP lessons. And we can feed back.

So, after giving my DD a small follow up lesson to explain that all girls get periods, unless something has gone wrong, I wrote an email to the body that writes the RSHP lessons.

This is more effective than going to the school, who are generally sensible and after all.were only giving the lesson as provided.

I included two references from the NHS that state clearly that girls who don't start menstruating by age 15 need to see a doctor to investigate.

I heard back that they were due to review I summer. This term I checked, and its been changed. The sentence about some girls not having periods has been removed.

This is one way we can counter the insidious creep of gender identity. Sentence by sentence, one email at a time.

I encourage all parents in Scotland to check the RSHP resource when they can. It's a big resource, and needs careful checking, and input from as many parents as possible.

Any incidences of genderwoo, consider how they can be questioned. Look for solid evidence to counter any problematic points, and raise the issue directly with the RSHP site/providers.

The people who write this content are responsive and can, and do listen.

rshp.scot

I hope you got the help you needed. Anything that stops you functioning should be investigated and helped if possible.

Adding on from that, it would be good if some mention could be made (in the older stages particularly) about issues girls might experience which affect menstruation - for example PCOS and endometriosis. It would have helped with a quicker diagnosis and better understanding if I'd known what the hell PCOS was earlier on.

Bravo OP. Every little helps.

Great stuff!

I've been in active dialogue with our local school for quite some time now on the difference between fact and belief.

I've been through all of the PHSE materials for two year groups (years 7 and 9) and highlighted the issues. Including where there is signposting to external websites.

It started very much like the OP said, one email at a time. In fact it all came off the back of getting some safeguarding for my autistic daughter on gender identity built in to her EHCP.

The dialogue continues and has snowballed from that one email (and the associated conversations) where there was mutual acknowledgement that what was influencing my daughter to believe she had a gender identity was also putting other vulnerable children at risk. So far so good. The school is reviewing all PHSE materials and I'm also in active conversations that go beyond this.

In Scotland RHSE materials are produced by the Scottish Government in conjunction with a dubious list of organisations as OP lists above. That makes it harder for the schools to set aside.

I agree about the need for a more realistic portrayal of periods. And that you should see your GP is they are painful or heavy. A friend’s daughter was hospitalised due to blood loss from her exceedingly heavy periods. And I remember struggling for years as a teen with painful periods - I was at university before I saw the GP who gave me mefanamic acid.

Ah OK. I hadn't appreciated that it was all mandated from one single source.

The English (and I presume Welsh) system is more fragmented. Some schools, like my daughters' school, are academies, so have autonomy to make their own choices. In this case, it's the senior leadership team and school governors who are the stakeholders. Not an easy task because they have a diverse range of views, which is why this isn't a fast exercise even then.

There are other schools that have autonomy but those that don't are under the Local Authority's mandate. I'm also liaising with my local MP on this side of stuff as well on all things gender identity related (the PHSE materials and the general impact of compelled belief).

So two different problems on either side of the border but two very similar goals: to remove the influence of a compelled belief in gender identity, it being positioned as a truth, in what children are learning. Sadly both need to be approached in a piecemeal way but thankfully more parents are speaking out.