Labour has voted down the Tories' amendment to allow parents to see sex ed resources in schools.

[2fallsfromSSA]

Schools minister Catherine McKinnell claims there's no evidence of a widespread problem.

This is utterly disgraceful, we know there are many issues with school RSE resources and there is no reason at all to stop parents knowing what their children are being taught in schools.

Not only are many materials politically motivated and biologically inaccurate, we been told by many distressed parents over the years - themselves the victims of CSA - that some school materials use the same language that their abusers did

Schools need to work in partnership with parents, not against them.

Catherine McKinnell responded to our thread by unfollowing us.

https://x.com/safeschoolsuk/status/1890126088166339041?s=46&t=wKQqSS_HYEY78hJQTlX9tJw

We gave evidence 2 years ago at the WESC, we have documented the issues, we have met with the Department for Education numerous times to share the concerns of parents and teachers.

safeschoolsallianceuk.net/2023/05/21/women-equalities-committee/

As an example of how it should be done but won’t be any longer because zealot parents ruined it: at my son’s primary school when he was, I believe in year four we were invited it for a talk to explain the PHSE/RSE curriculum for each year. We were shown slides, example lessons and given access to the materials which all looked perfectly age appropriate and very good actually. We then had v religious mum bursting in the room absolutely screaming at the teachers about how she did not want her son being taught about sex and de-railing it for everyone. A dad sat next to me then joined in about how everyone was actually here because they didn’t want any their kids taught to be gay. I had to point out that most of us were not here for that purpose because we were normal and didn’t think overworked primary school teachers wanted to teach kids to be gay and he went mental at me and the school has, understandably, never repeated the event.

So although I share concerns about ideologies being taught where they should not be I should also point out that for some schools I can understand why they would want to do the bare minimum of sharing when the above sort of thing happens.

Ok might not be a popular action but can you tag Elon Musk. He’ll certainly shine a light on things…

@ThunderFog there is loads of info on our website to help you formulate a complaint safeschoolsallianceuk.net

You're quite right to raise the issue of ideological groups of parents (and sometimes non parents) trying to influence the SRE curriculum. As an SRE lead in a number of schools I've sat through some very challenging meetings with parents. It's difficult for schools to navigate all this individually - which is why this and the previous government avoiding doing the work of suggesting a core age appropriate curriculum leaves individual schools to face the pressure.

This is how too many the queer theory / porn promoting groups have been able to step in with unwary schools unintentionally buying into some very grim materials. Safe Schools Alliance really do have an overview of the issues and it's so disappointing that the government have (yet again) failed to listen to those raising these issues involving safeguarding children .

In addition to SSA's excellent work, Transgender Trend have been highlighting the problems with some of the materials for schools from activist groups for many years:

www.transgendertrend.com/rshe-draft-guidance-problem-schools/

There are most certainly many schools who actively push trans ideology, or who certainly scaffold and enable it. Teachers teaching contested theory as fact. Using teaching materials from outside bodies.

I used to be a teacher, and my daughter currently is a teacher.....when I was teachingg ( I left in 2010) 'Trans' was not a thing.....it didn't exist. But now it is in most schools, and there are many activist teachers -even at primary level.

Use of pronouns by teachers leads to reinforcement of the ideology; and many schools run LGBTQ+ lunchtime clubs - in which vulnerable and/or questioning young people have gender identity theory pressed upon them.

No, she’s saying that a lot of autistic kids identify as trans because of sloppy LGBT lessons. I went in one for school staff once where the trainer said one way you could tell you might be trans is because “you’ve always felt a bit different”.

It’s alluded to in the Cass review, that after intense social rejection, an autistic kid might confuse the acceptance offered by schools for them being quirky because trans for them actually being trans. My kid is autistic too BTW.

If I have a flat tyre on my car, I don’t put it in a crusher. Elon Musk wants to ensure social media can do what it wants and is doing all he can to bring down Labour because he thinks they are more likely to put safeguards in.

You aren't allowed to in schools here.

That depends on the school/LA
Are they allowing by exception mixed sex bathrooms or openly converting the bathrooms to mixed sex.
How are teachers instructed to manage a child claimimg to be the oppisate sex.
How must they deal with bullying around this issue.
How is Pride month and events managed
What acronym is being used LGB, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBT+, LGBTIQ+ and is it being used as a verb.

One school a Stonewall champion was teaching that a girl who was same sex attracted would take injections and become a man when she grew up. That culture is a problem as the parent would be seen as that problem parent

How much will the State pay a single parent to home school their child?

And home schooling will come under more and more pressure as school is increasingly seen as a safeguard against abusive parents

If I teach children about what vegetarianism, for example, is or that it exists- how is that telling them they must be vegetarian or encouraging them to do it? There is a difference between teaching something exists and actively encouraging them to do it or pushing ideology onto them. I take umbrage with the two being conflated.
My ND teen has never learned a single thing about trans issues or down anything a beyond a very basic reference to sexual orientation at school. Yet- I still suspect they are confused about their sexuality. Evidence suggests that neurodiverse people, particularly those on the autism spectrum, are more likely to be gender diverse and have a lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or asexual sexual orientation, compared to neurotypical people. The reasons why are not well understood. One possibility is that neurodiverse people tend to be less aware of, or less susceptible to, societal pressures and gender norms; therefore, they can express their gender identity or sexual orientation without concerns of being judged or fitting into certain roles. But the argument here seems to be that this is happening because they are being influenced at school which I strongly dispute.
I also dispute the idea that children listen to their teachers this much! They absolutely do not at Secondary level- they care about social media influences and what their peers say and are more likely to do the opposite of what teachers say! Another reason why we have a recruitment and retention crisis.
Society changes and regardless of people's personal views on contentious issues, I totally dispute the idea that huge numbers of teachers around the country are turning children trans which is what some seem to be implying. Parents complain at the drop of a hat so there is just no way this is widespread. Any schools that have done something stupid or misguided- certainly would not be doing it again because parents would kick off very quickly. It is those isolated incidents I have read about in threads linked here.
My main point was that I don't understand how what is already statutory guidance will be any further followed if ,as people state, some schools are already actively ignoring it whether wilfully or through ignorance. They are in a minority and if Ofsted aren't pulling them on it - then parents certainly will.

Can you edit this link please, it has typos and leads nowhere.

I've just clicked on it and it works perfectly.

It doesn't even have to come from RSE though. At my son's Secondary, the RE teacher gave them a list of famous people and asked them to put them in Good, Neutral and Bad categories. They were also given a small biog about the people. My son was castigated for putting JKR at the top of the good column because " she has made a series of transphobic tweets, how will our trans students feel about that?" Given that no yr 7 students are probably on Twitter, they all blindly accepted the teacher's nonsense.
We're in Cornwall, home of the Trans Student Handbook guidance circa 2012.

In Ireland there is consitutional protection for a parents right to oversee education and yet one of its largest teaching unions invited the (its ok to have sex with children)'s organisation in to tell the teachers that they did not have to inform the parents about what they are teaching.

So some schools will develop a culture which as you point out is not to just teach.
Others end up guiding the questioning child rather than managing it within a questioning framework.
So its not individual teachers actively teaching rather activism (in school or in the LA) has altered the culture.

A simple example of culture change is that an employee had to get the courts permission to explain why she objected to a male in her changing room because it would be silly is she had to say she entered she striped etc as pronoun and other words reflect wider social norms.

Would you agree that a school deciding to relable single sex bathrooms to mixed sex or LA's decided to fund school builds with no single sex privision is an organisation taking a clear position on how the view the right of one child to have a single sex space over the want of another to be allowed into the space?

lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or asexual sexual orientation,

This lesbian, gay, bisexual is 2 sex 2 humans so 3 combinations

Can you explain
queer sexual orientation,
asexual sexual orientation,

We can see what's taught in my kids schools. They won't share the slides because of copyright but anyone can go into the office and view them there, no big deal.
Tories and Reform just like making drama where there is none. Go and ask your kids schools and they will show you what they teach for any subject.

It has extra letters in it and goes to 'not found', please see picture (if I can attach it).

Mercifully I did not vote for them. But I think many will not have realised the implications of Labour's stance on trans ideology etc or sex positivity. And, tbh, if you criticise sex positivity/OF etc on some MN boards you get swamped by MNetters calling you old-fashioned, a prude, and someone who thinks it's ok to tell other people what to do with their bodies (to be clear, I don't think I have any such right), so maybe some people think Labour's stance is not just ok but progressive and 'modern'.

The copyright thing is absolutely bollocks, there is nothing in copyright stopping the school privately sharing the slides. It's an excuse to stop parents viewing them.

And no it's not made up by labour and reform, this is actually happening and it has been highlighted here for years.

Not to mention the taxing of education that isn't provided by the state, it does rather look as if they believe all children ought to be subject to the views the government deems best, rather than the parents.

The fact that you seem to think trans is a sexual orientation shows how very ill-informed you are about this issue.

TBF Ddakji i think LyndaLaHughes has differentiated between sexual acts and dressing or acting out a expected F/M role.

But this

...

lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or asexual sexual orientation,
This lesbian, gay, bisexual is 2 sex 2 humans so 3 combinations
Can you explain
queer sexual orientation,
asexual sexual orientation,
.....

^^ is TRA ideology been pushed into sex education

But when you question it and are told what is being taught isn't compliant with DoE guidelines, you are told by your school's RSE lead (after several back and forwards emails) "I don't have time to find resources that are, if you can find them, please do send them".

The fact that you seem to think trans is a sexual orientation shows how very ill-informed you are about this issue.*

That's deliberately misinterpreting what I said. Of course it isn't a sexual orientation.

Can you explain
queer sexual orientation,
asexual sexual orientation,
.....

My understanding is that the term "queer" is used now to cover changing preferences and fluid identity.
Asexual is having no interest in sex.

To be clear- just because I am discussing this does not mean I am a) teaching it or b) that anything I am discussing implies anything about my own stance or views.