Just Like Us - school assembly

[listsandbudgets]

Does anyone know anything about this charity? DS said they ran his school assembly yesterday and it seemed to be suggesting that lots of the boys would be happier as girls and they should all consider whether they were really happy as they were. They were also talking about gays and lesbians which DS does understand and accepts but the idea that it was OK to use the girls toilets or dress in skirts really seemed to upset him. He also said some of the boys were now talking about using the girls toilets and just telling the teachers they were now girls.

DS is year 7 (and young for the year) has some learning difficulties and came home rather distressed and confused. I want to take it up with the school but I'm not quite sure how. I don't think DS exaggerated but I do think (hope) that he might have misunderstood some of the ideas presented.

Feeling rather confused myself - I do think also that the school should have told us before running this type of assembly.

Sensible to go in with a non-confrontational email with questions.

However, I would be prepare to escalate it quickly via the formal complaints process if you are dissatisfied with their response.

Do come back to this thread when you hear back to let us know how you get on or for further advice.

Meanwhile you could also do a general check of school policies and info on website etc. Pointers here:

https://sex-matters.org/take-action/school-check/

I’m glad I’m not a teacher. I don’t think I could stay seated in an assembly and passively allow this kind of confusing BS to be presented to kids I’ve any responsibility for.

Also ask when the Gender Critical “side” is being presented? After all a balanced approach is required in schools - isn’t it?

Questions to ask:
Content of the assembly
How it was followed up by pastoral support?
Was it evidence based?
Did it comply with government guidance?

Specifically:
My son shared that many boys would be happier as girls?
This is not factual or evidence based.. humans cannot change sex.
Preferences and behaviours should not be used to predict sex or gender, stereotypes are harmful, restrictive and regressive.

Gender idiology is a belief that is not universally held and should not be presented as facts.

Inclusivity and diversity should leave space for gender non conforming people to be accepted without questioning their identies.
It sounds like this assembly was promoting as fact that gender non confirming people are always trans. This is a belief, unsupported by evidence and is not supported by the Cass report.

Promoting trans ideologies (or any other ideologies) is not part of the schools remit.

Promoting positive attitudes and acceptance of all individuals without assiging labels or stereotypes is more likely to be better for mental health.

If gender dysphoria is rare (which I believe it is) it's frightening how many children, young people and even older adults are suddenly claiming it. Even more terrifying is that due to it's rarity, some people will be getting a sex change thinking that is the solution when it's really not.

Lots of great advice on this thread. Particularly from the ever brilliant (I'm yet to see proof otherwise!) Mrs O.

From my own experience, talking to my daughters' school, coming from a neutral angle has paid dividends for positive conversations. My neutral approach is centred around the recognition that some people do believe that we all have a gender identity. This is also recognised in the Gender Questioning Children guidance on the link above. More importantly, it is recognised that not everyone holds this belief.
Unfortunately the impact of this belief being taught as a truth isn't covered in the draft guidance clearly enough. It's a good start though and if you need inspiration for further conversations after your email opener, there are some good threads on this. I'm about to head out but I'll have a dig around and send some links on here for you OP. So that it's all in one place for future reference.

To quickly add: I've found it beneficial to start conversations with sharing officially recognised information e.g. the government draft guidance or the NHS-commissioned Cass Review.
Unfortunately schools get so bombarded with LGBT lobby group materials that there is a strong risk that they would see Safe Schools Alliance, Transgender Trend etc as "hate groups". I have shared their materials with my daughters' school but only when I'm much further down the line in the conversation. I wanted to keep the dialogue open, not be shut down/out as a "bigot".

Aside from all the other obvious dodgy issues, Just Like Us is a shit name isn’t it. What are they saying - who’s “us”? It sounds like they’re saying “us” is normal people and to be nice to all the people who aren’t normal. Hardly inclusive.

if they really are actively encouraging kids in general to pursue a trans identity and suggesting they might be happier - that’s appalling and massively irresponsible.

Following on from my first comment above, this is the MN thread that I was thinking about:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4992220-non-binary-teachers?page=1

It's indirectly related to the schools' guidance (the thread does include conversation about it), so a slight correction to how I positioned it. There is lots of really useful discussion about the impact of gender identity belief and its language on children. Particularly on children who have SEN/autism, where there is an increased likelihood of a child being confused.

I emailed the head of year copying in the deputy head responsible for pastoral but had no reply as yet.

I asked them how the assembly fitted in with government guidance as I was concerned that Just Like Us seemed to be telling schools to reject it.

Do let us know the outcome. Again - it's so important that parents speak out about all this as it makes senior staff in schools start looking more closely at what's happening (unless of course they're the Stonewall reps).

Sounds like a perfect way to approach it.
I'm emotionally invested now in what happens next!
🤞🤞

Well done @listsandbudgets

As others have said, let us know what they say.

Horrible group.

I listened to one of their ambassadors at an event, a young woman with a Muslim background. She talked about her parents not allowing her to dress as she chose or run around outside with her brothers because girls didn’t do that kind of thing. Then she realised she was attracted to girls & knew that would be completely unacceptable.

Then Just Like Us came to her school. I was hoping against hope that this would be the part where she realised she could be a happy, confident lesbian girl who didn’t need to match her parents’ inflicted gender stereotypes.

No. This was the bit where she realised she, or rather they, was nonbinary. Because obviously they couldn’t be a girl if they didn’t do what girls were supposed to do. And they was now an ambassador sharing this regressive, misogynist message in schools.

Any more recent experiences of this charity, please? I will be encountering them next week.