Email from school principal

[letterfromschool]

Namechanged because identifiable.

Just received the following email from my child's school principal. We are in Suffolk. I'm don't know what the local MP (Tory Tom Hunt) has actually said, but from a quick look on Twitter it seems to be about the trans issue and some students given an opportunity to come up with their own list of approved/ cancelled words for use in the school. Wondering if anyone can enlighten me.

Dear Parents, Carers and Guardians
I am writing to let you know that the local MP, Mr Hunt, has made some comments online and to the Daily Express criticising our work around Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. These comments were made without checking the context of our work and Mr Hunt has not responded to my invitation to come into the school to discuss his concerns.
I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that our Relationships & Sex Education (RSE) and Personal, Social, Health & Economic Education (PSHEE) curriculums have been planned and audited following clear national guidelines set out by the Department for Education. In addition to this, we work closely with Suffolk County Council's RSE Network to ensure that our curriculum remains up to date, and that we are delivering content that is relevant within our local context and in line with other schools within our local community.
Our RSE/PSHEE lessons are inclusive of all protected characteristics (Equality Act 2010) and reflect the British values, anti-discriminatory ethos and equalities duties expected of every school. In order to keep our students safe, we teach a curriculum that recognises that LGBT+ people exist within our community and that any kind of discriminatory bullying is wrong. We remain committed to our school being a safe space for all of our students and publish details of our RSE/PSHEE curriculum on our website.
Yours sincerely

I would love to know where they found the ‘clear national guidelines’.

clear national guidelines set out by the Department for Education
Well that's bollocks for a start!

This is exactly the sort of waffly (and dishonest) reassurance my school would send out.

I would keep a very close eye.

I would be checking if they have all the characteristics correct for a start, then asking to see the guidance they are using and all the material including outside resources

Well, now go find those details on line and ask what DoE guidelines they are referring to!

DD has confirmed this refers to a toolkit that hangs in every history classroom.
1st section is on Gender, 2nd section on Sexuality, 3rd section is on "other useful terms". The Gender section is by far the longest section in the toolkit. It has 14 terms, the Sexuality section has 8.

This school is very "woke" and insisted on changing DD's pronouns on her behalf when she got a haircut.
It took me 3 years to get them to understand that they weren't respecting her pronouns. She says gender non-conformity is not accepted at this school.

Our RSE/PSHEE lessons are inclusive of all protected characteristics (Equality Act 2010)

Might be worth checking:
(1) that the school understands that gender critical beliefs are also protected under the Equality Act
(2) how the school is including this protected characteristic in its RSE/PSHEE lessons.

The more these ideologues operating as they are in professional safeguarding spaces are compelled to put their written rationale into the public space, the quicker they can be moved out and we can get back to rebuilding parental trust with our education, social and health services.

This statement is clearly hollow, opaque and enables individuals in the school to host secrets from parents, and has placed the school at odds with a democratic mandate.

I'd definitely be replying to that letter with some probing questions!

It might relate to this

https://twitter.com/SafeSchools_UK/status/1721224770241319284. Tom Hunt replied to it to say they would raise it with the DofE.

I’d ask why Loud and Proud have locked down their Twitter. Surely if they have nothing to hide they wouldn’t have done this. Let’s put the students in charge sounds worrying, especially if their main source of training is the genderbread man and links to Mermaids.

Why does the principal not know the plural of curriculum?

@IamMala

Well might you ask. So many questions...

'Curriculums' sets my teeth on edge.

"Curriculums" is a perfectly legitimate, and widely used, plural. Follows English grammar and all that. I'm with the principal on that, at least, if nothing else.

"Principal", however, is a weird foreign term.

Edit: except in pantomime and money lending

Sorry - the Head. She's very Austraylian, 'principal' was a little private joke.

I understand it was the teaching of the GenderBreadModel that Tom Hunt was responding too. My first question would be why it is in the classrooms of the History department and is healthy, open and critical, evidence based debate actually being taught there...

LGBT+

What does the plus stand for. That's the question we should all be asking.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-67365461

This has appeared on the BBC website.

So your DD's school thinks short hair = boy and long hair = girl? They need a biology lesson - and a bit of history of hair styles wouldn't go amiss.

They think long hair = she/her and short hair on a girl = they/them.

Grrrrrrr. I'd probably hit them with a temporary injunction, forbidding them to call my girl a boy (this is possible in my country, don't know about the UK). They'd have to go to court to have it lifted and would need to to prove why their actions are okay.
(I'd argue in my application for the injunction that it goes in the same direction as calling ethnic minorities an unwanted term).

Jesus H Christ, did you go nuts at the Headteacher?