Rainbow Flag school

[Gamh]

We are moving back to the UK this summer after many years away. We have found 3 schools that we like for our 6 year old boy and our 5 year old girl. However, one of them - sadly, my favourite one - advertises itself on its website as a Rainbow Flag award school. Now, I’m all for teaching children to be kind and respectful to everyone regardless of who they are or how they identify. But I’m not at all keen on teaching gender ideology as fact, on introducing the notion that a child can be born in the wrong body, on suggesting that boys who do not conform to gender stereotypes might actually be girls, etc. Especially for 5/6 year old children.

I don’t know whether to raise my concerns now (and risk jeopardising their school places/ starting off on the wrong foot with the school) or to wait and see what is actually being taught and then complain, or to just say nothing and try to balance what is taught with my own views at home.

Does anybody have any experience of sending their children to a Rainbow Flag award school?How much time is actually spent on the gender/sexuality thing? Is it possible to opt out of those lessons?

What can parents even do if we find them to be in breach of DoE guidelines?

thanks for any help/advice you can give me!

(previously posted in the wrong section because MN wouldn’t give me the option to post here)

Their website is fairly informative about their approach, and you can see some examples of the resources they use https://www.rainbowflagaward.co.uk/the-classroom/

Some good things appear to be avoiding the 'LGBT+ as most oppressed' narrative, and looking at the resources shown they do remember that lesbians exist.

On the other hand, they refer to both lesbians and gay men as 'they', rather than he or she.

It's a Proud Trust initiative, so it might be worth reading up on them as well as the specific schools award.

And I think the Alien Nation book they mention had a thread on here fairly recently.

It's a whole-school approach, rather than standalone lessons, so it wouldn't be possible to opt out.

Proud Trust are very into ‘gender’ as you can see from their 2024 resources for LGBT history month. Sexual attraction (as in being attracted to someone’s biological sex) seems now to be redefined to an attraction to someone’s gender (whatever that is?).

It's such a mess @Gamh.
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I'd be put off by a primary school foolish enough to engage with a rainbow flag initiative - it suggests that political activism may be more important than safeguarding, with adults uncertain about what is age appropriate.
However, I'd look at their policies & website and see whether the other protected characteristics (disability, race, religion, sex) which arguably are more relevant than gender reassignment / sexuality to 5 /6 years olds, receive equal focus in curriculum time, funding etc.

Sadly the proud trust raises far more red flags than rainbow ones - especially for children:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4584553-the-proud-trust

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8680831/Schools-urged-teach-children-young-13-intimate-sex-acts-using-dice-game.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8680831/Schools-urged-teach-children-young-13-intimate-sex-acts-using-dice-game.html

And as with the pronouns, using this as a whole-school approach is going to mess up grammar lessons.

One of the examples on the website is teaching prefixes using 'bi-' meaning 2: bicycle - 2 wheels, bilateral - on 2 sides, bicentenary - anniversary occurring after 2 centuries, bisexual - attracted to 2 an unspecified number of other genders.

My dad's both went to a secondary school which after they started,began to fly the 'progress' flag. They never ever mentioned any attempt at indoctrination or unscientific nonsense. I know there were two LGBT+ clubs,but they seemed to consist of girls doing colouring in from what I could see.
I briefly worked there,and seeing that flag used to make me feel very uncomfortable. They had a huge proportion of neuro diverse students as they were catered for exceptionally well and the SEND department was very well funded.

I would be tempted to write to them with a link to the Gender Questioning Children guidance that is currently out for public consultation, asking them if they could share their thoughts on it.

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:EU:61dd0404-65a9-434a-8aae-f1eb0f766230

Their response would be add an extra dimension to anything you can read on their website.

The key phrase for me in this guidance is within the definition of "gender identity". It says that not everyone believes that we have a gender identity. If the school teaches its lessons and ethos through the lens that gender identity is a truth, rather than a belief, this will impact more than just PHSE/RSE lessons. Realistically, most schools are likely to be doing this currently. From my own experience, talking to my daughters' school about belief versus fact has been a useful avenue for discussion - this document provides a great way in for that conversation and unpicking the subject in a neutral way. If they cut you off or say it's transphobic or they'll be ignoring it, that is very telling IMO (and personally I would stay well clear - but I have a daughter who is directly at risk from the impact of gender identity belief). If they say that they are following it with interest, I'd be following up to get a feel for whether they intend to implement it once it's finalised etc. Whilst the current draft version isn't perfect - and this is covered in other threads - it's a significantly positive step forward.