Secondary schools - are any of these red flags for gender madness?

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I've recently visited 8 state secondary schools in my city. Can anyone advise me if any of these things are red flags for gender madness having taken hold, or is this just normal in secondary these days?

My baseline is that none of these would have been allowed at the school I went to - but I'm very out of date! Things were certainly not great for gay kids back then and I hope this has changed for the better.

• Every school had an LGBTQ club
• A prominently displayed Stonewall poster 'trans people exist, get over it' (not in context of studying activism/advertising)
• Specific toilets for 'all genders'
• Activist/political flags like progress pride used in an activist context (rather than studying activism)
• Wall displays encouraging activism - e.g. on climate/green issues, LGBT issues, race issues
• Displays on teachers doors alluding to that teachers political beliefs and activism
• School posters talking about 'decolonising the curriculum'
• Shelves of trashy teen romance books in the school library (Heartstopper and similar) - I'd expect to see books with sex as a theme in a secondary library, but 1984/Brave New World/Dorian Grey type stuff rather than Forever(!)
• So many wall displays including people who haven't made significant contributions to their field but were there purely on identity. The most bizarre one I saw was in Physics and had Dr Rachel Padman (an MtoF chap who taught me at Cambridge in the 90's!)

I guess I want a school to deal quickly with any type of bullying, and help kids who are struggling, but I don't love how this now seems to be tied to identity groups and bleed into activism now.

Thank goodness both of my teens are private. Honestly, none of this virtue signalling

What is “my city”?

Are these schools in Oxfordshire?

The all gender toilets probably don't meet regulations, and are certainly less safe than single sex ones - both for assault and for health issues.

The poster and flags may break the new Keeping Children Safe in Education guidelines.

Trashy romance novels wouldn't worry me if reasonably age-approriate. My school library back in the 80s always had a waiting list for Sweet Valley High books.

[Edited for typo]

London zone 3. 25-30% FSM, very multicultural.

Having read your posting history, you clearly went in to these school actively looking for all this (probably thinking about the thread you’d start about it the entire time)

Should also say - this list isn't from a single school, its a combination of things I noticed at 8 different ones.

The club very much depends how it's run. General, neutral support is fine. If lead by an activist pushing identities, or if it encourages any sort of explicit discussion, and if all ages 11 to 18 are in together, possibly a safeguarding issue.

I’m impressed you’re in the catchment area for at least 8 secondary schools!

You can apply to schools outside catchment area.

The landscape has changed for schools. Dealing with gender questioning children is now seen through a safeguarding lens and Keeping Children Safe in Education makes explicit that parents must be involved, schools must not initiate any action with pupils and that children must not be forced to undress, toilet, sleep alongside the opposite sex (much more info on pages 65 onwards in the link below)

The new guidelines on teaching Sex, Relationships Health Education (see second link) are explicit that this must be age appropriate, that schools must not teach as fact that all people have a gender identity . (paras 67 onwards). It states
"Where schools decide to use external resources, they should avoid materials that use cartoons or diagrams that oversimplify this topic, that could be interpreted as being aimed at younger children, or that perpetuate stereotypes or encourage pupils to question their gender. Schools should consult parents on the content of external resources on this topic in advance..."

Parents need to be aware of these changes as activists are sadly powerful in some schools. But guidance is finally on the side of children's safety and parents now have back up in challenging schools - especially in stopping all the trans lobbyists who until now have been able to indoctrinate children with their niche beliefs.

Any school foolish enough to run a safeguarding busting LGBT etc club needs to explain how they can guarantee that children are not being exposed to being indoctrinated? coached? exposed? to an age inappropriate ideology based on the notion of sex change. The potential safeguarding risks of running a mixed age group (11 - 18) exposes all children to risks. Especially older students and staff who could easily be accused of inappropriate behaviour when discussing sex and sexuality.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ac3c09c11ed58342ad8e4ac/Keeping_children_safe_in_education_2026.pdf

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6970e7e67e827090d02d42e0/Relationships_education_relationships_and_sex_education__RSE__and_health_education__for_intro_1_September_2026_.pdf

Sorry for the length of the post but it seems that some schools are not aware of the new statutory framework, so parents may need to remind them. Knowing what the guidance states is important for parents.

If they are good schools and in London - zero point

Well, I refuse to apply for jobs that show the Stonewall banner or say they've been through Stonewall "training", so I wouldn't want my child to go to a school that's been indoctrinated that way.

All schools should have male and female toilets. If they also have 'all gender' toilets, I would be fine with that.

Activism...meh, it depends what it is, but if it's things like climate change, all young people think they're the first to notice the world is going to hell in a hand cart and they all think they're the only ones who care and will save it. (It was certainly the way I used to think.) I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, but it should be taught alongside critical thinking, research skills, debate, how to listen and reflect on other points of views etc.

The library - now lack of a library, or a very poorly stocked one, would bother me. Does it have a range of books which just happen to includes some romance, or is it all trash? (I'm surprised Judy Bloom is still read! I remember 'Forever' being in our school library. I think every kid in year 7 borrowed it!)

I guess all you can do is look at the curriculum, the stability of teachers (i.e. is there quite a high turnover, is the PE teacher also supposed to sub for the French teacher etc) and try to find out what current parents and students think. If you're stuck for suitable schools in your area, you may have to rent elsewhere, close to a more desirable school.

Thanks @MrsOvertonsWindow - I'm so very glad all that is in place now. As you say - some schools may have stronger activists and this stuff has embedded more. I suppose I'm trying to smell out if that may be the case in our local schools, or if what I've seen on visits is pretty normal for 2026.

@C152 your school library had Forever? No way would that have made it into ours! Sadly I didn't see any Judy Blume - that was my attempt of coming up with an equivalent to Heartstopper etc!

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn Likewise - we had to go to the local library for SVHs! Agree on the clubs, just one of many things its impossible to know how it works in practice.

I thought London application form had six spaces - so visiting eight doesn't seem excessive to me.

This has been pushed at children on an industrial scale in recent years. It's very telling that it's this government who are rolling it back. The harm done to children and young people if off the scale and is finally being noticed. No doubt many of the politicians who've promoted this because their child's got caught up in it, are finally seeing the wreckage of their children's lives. Their continued mental health challenges, all the physical ailments as a result of the off label drugs and brutal experimental surgery. Hence finally putting in safeguards in schools (and hoping that their previous complicity goes unnoticed).

But the silence amongst adults in schools - often through fear - is what's allowed this to get so far. Senior leaders need to push back against activists - they now have guidance to hold staff to account. And if they don't - parents can effectively challenge.

My kids' z3 London school probably has all these. I'm quite gender critical - in the true sense, i.e. I think gender is made up, not in the I hate men who wear a dress sense - and I think it is led by the kids and because of that these are the greenest of green flags. Kids feel comfortable, school doesn't make a huge drama out of using whichever pronouns people want to, separate all gender bogs as well as single sex is perfectly legal, nobody is feeling shut down or victimised so kids are more or less happy to do what they're told. With exceptions obviously.

As for the library, kids perform better where reading for pleasure is encouraged and kids like reading the stuff you mentioned.

I think you've gone in deciding to have a conniption. Hope you don't end up as a parent at my kids' school.

All of those things would make me like those schools more to be honest!

Displays on teachers doors alluding to that teachers political beliefs and activism

Can you give an example?

What does decolonising the curriculum actually mean?

I assume school librarians will take reading teen trash over reading nothing. I was thinking fondly of Point Horror just the other day....

I.m.e it depends often on whether there are activist teachers on the staff and how determined they are.

Stonewall posters- these are relics, that campaign is many years old.

LGB clubs might be okay, depending on who is running them and how.

Loos are a disaster, largely because of vandalism as well as all the gender pish.

All the political activism is worrying, and is not how schools should be run. By all means learn about issues, but always from as objective and non partisan positions as possible. Teach how to assess info, critical thinking, how to be politically involved. Don't teach specific political positions as TRSOH.

Decolonising the curriculum means making a concerted effort to learn/teach things additional to those that dead posh white men told us we should learn 100 hundred years ago. In a state school in zone 3 London the presumably very varied student body in terms of class and culture makes those conversations entirely appropriate if you're interested in engaging your students in that curriculum. Difficult to argue otherwise really.

All of them are huge 🚩
Pleased my DC school has none of this.