Schools Resources
We have developed comprehensive schools resources and guidance for teachers and parents, in consultation with teachers, child protection and welfare professionals and lawyers. Our aim is to arm schools with all the relevant facts so that teachers feel more informed and confident in creating a safe school for all pupils, including non-conforming children and those who identify as ‘transgender.’
Our schools resources are based on the ‘watchful waiting’ approach towards children and young people with gender dysphoria. This is the established clinical approach, which may include counselling, family therapy etc for children who are severely distressed. Activists promote an ‘affirmation’ and social transition approach which is experimental. It means that if a boy says he is a girl everyone must affirm him as a girl. This approach covers up any underlying problems that have led to a child’s identification as transgender and is therefore in our view a risky approach.
All our schools resources are fully compatible with Department for Education guidance on teaching the RSE and PSHE curriculum:
“We are aware that topics involving gender and biological sex can be complex and sensitive matters to navigate. You should not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by suggesting that children might be a different gender based on their personality and interests or the clothes they prefer to wear. Resources used in teaching about this topic must always be age-appropriate and evidence based. Materials which suggest that non-conformity to gender stereotypes should be seen as synonymous with having a different gender identity should not be used and you should not work with external agencies or organisations that produce such material. While teachers should not suggest to a child that their non-compliance with gender stereotypes means that either their personality or their body is wrong and in need of changing, teachers should always seek to treat individual students with sympathy and support.
You should work together with parents on any decisions regarding your school’s treatment of their child, in line with the school’s safeguarding policy and the statutory guidance on working together to safeguard children.
Safeguarding
We promote a safeguarding first approach for all children. For information on safeguarding and the law in schools see:
The Government needs to put safeguarding first – the Critic magazine
Safeguarding Children – Legal Feminist
Schools Guide
Download our schools guide here
Order a printed copy from our shop
For this work, Stephanie Davies-Arai was nominated and shortlisted for the John Maddox Prize 2018, a joint initiative of the charity Sense About Science and the science journal Nature, which “recognises the work of individuals who promote sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest, facing difficulty or hostility in doing so.”
Our guide was also judged to be the most consistent with EHRC Technical Guidance for Schools and the only guide based on safeguarding, in a TES review of all available transgender school guides.
Inclusive Relationships and Sex Education in Schools (RSE): Statutory Guidance and External Providers
Download our RSE Guidance here
Order a printed copy from our shop
This guide analyses publicly-available RSE guidance from external providers and compares it with statutory requirements for the new RSE curriculum. We found that this guidance misrepresents Equality law, is in breach of the requirement to teach biological facts, undermines the principles of privacy, boundaries and consent, and promotes unsafe sexual practices.
Safeguarding
Download our Safeguarding Concerns booklet here
Order a hard copy here
Our analysis of currently available transgender guidance in relation to Department for Education statutory safeguarding guidelines such as ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children.
Children’s Rights Impact Assessment
Download our Children’s Rights Impact Assessment here
Order a hard copy here
Using the UK government Child’s Rights Impact Assessment template, this is a comprehensive impact assessment of the Brighton & Hove Allsorts Trans Inclusion Schools Toolkit, which is used by local authorities across the UK.
Boys and Girls and the Equality Act – Guidance for Schools in England
This guide is about schools’ responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 towards all boys and girls in relation to the protected characteristics of sex, and “gender reassignment”.
This is not a guide to gender identity issues or healthcare for individual pupils; rather, it is about the general rules and policies that schools need in order to be fair and inclusive, keep everyone safe and work with parents.
The general principles are clarity of language, and doing no harm. Children who experience gender dysphoria or who identify as transgender should not be treated less favourably in education, but they have not changed sex. By taking steps to avoid sex discrimination (i.e. not treating girls and boys differently, apart from where sex matters), schools will also avoid much risk of indirect discrimination against children who may have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.
Boys and Girls and the Equality Act – Guidance for Schools in Wales
This guide is about schools’ responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 towards all boys and girls in relation to the protected characteristics of sex, and “gender reassignment”.
This is not a guide to gender identity issues or healthcare for individual pupils; rather, it is about the general rules and policies that schools need in order to be fair and inclusive, keep everyone safe and work with parents.
The general principles are clarity of language, and doing no harm. Children who experience gender dysphoria or who identify as transgender should not be treated less favourably in education, but they have not changed sex. By taking steps to avoid sex discrimination (i.e. not treating girls and boys differently, apart from where sex matters), schools will also avoid much risk of indirect discrimination against children who may have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.
Simple guide to Equality law and government statutory and non-statutory guidance for schools
The most common questions from parents answered, with relevant sections from the Equality Act 2010 and statutory schools guidance to back you up. This guide provides you with understanding of your rights and the rights of your child in school.
Download the guidance document here
Children’s Picture Book: My Body is Me!
Order your copy of My Body is Me! here
Download teacher’s notes and lesson plan here
An upbeat, rhyming picture book, aimed for 3-6 year olds, written by Rachel Rooney and illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg in consultation with Transgender Trend. It introduces children to the workings of the human body, and celebrates similarities and differences while challenging sex stereotypes. It also aims to promote a positive self-image and foster self-care skills. The text is inclusive for children with physical or sensory disabilities.
Sex and Gender: An Introductory Guide
Written and illustrated by the hugely talented Phoebe Rose, this engaging book will help young people explore questions about sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender stereotypes in an age-appropriate way. This wonderful guide provides a vital opportunity for young people to have positive, healthy discussions that promote true body positivity and embrace diversity.
Phoebe, a former teacher, is a young lesbian woman with a recent ASD diagnosis. This is reflected in her relatable, humourous and diverse characters that bring every page to life.
Teens and pre-teens are surrounded by confusing messages about sex and gender. Parents and teachers have told us there is a lack of clear, factual and accessible information for this age group. We’re confident that Sex And Gender will fill this gap and become an important addition to the RSE or PHSE curriculum.
Transmission of Transition
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16 pages including comprehensive video references.
There has been an exponential rise in the referrals of gender-confused young women to gender clinics in the UK. Could YouTube transition videos be playing a causative role?
How much influence may YouTube transition vloggers have over children and young people?
Do transition vloggers shape young people’s views of their gender identity by providing a particular ideological lens through which to interpret their life and difficulties?
By looking into the world of YouTube transition vlogs and bringing together observations on the language, filters, signs and suggestions embedded in them, this article examines their intentions towards, and possible impact on, the minds of young female viewers.
This is an edited and updated version of an article which first appeared as a chapter in the book ‘Inventing Transgender Children and Young People’, edited by Michele Moore and Heather Brunskell-Evans and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing; Unabridged edition (1 Nov. 2019). The book is available to buy here: www.cambridgescholars.com
Stonewall-Schools Guidance A Critical Review
Read our full report here
Stonewall turns its attention to children with SEND and autism – our full report on Stonewall schools guidance since 2015.
In March, Stonewall published a new schools guide ‘An Introduction to Supporting LGBT young people’, replacing the guide of the same name published in 2015 which is no longer available from the website. The new guide goes further than any previous Stonewall schools guidance in several significant ways, the most serious and potentially harmful aspect of which is the whole section dedicated to children with SEND, including autism.
We have reviewed all ten Stonewall schools guides from 2015 to the present.
Free downloads for parents and teachers
Schools Advice for Parents
Tips on how to go about challenging your child’s school, using the new Department for Education RSE guidance to support your concerns.
Template letter to your child’s school
A letter to the Head teacher to check the school’s position regarding the teaching of gender identity. May be useful if you are giving the school our schools pack to look at.
A teacher’s assessment of a Mermaids training session
The contributor of these notes is a language teacher and department chair in a secondary school. She has over 20 years of teaching experience in both the UK and international school systems.
Impact of teaching ‘gender identity’ to children
Impact of the loss of single sex spaces on girls
Impact on adolescent girls
Early childhood and adolescence are crucial periods of identity development. These documents assess the influence of gender identity teaching at these distinct developmental stages:
Child Development
Adolescence
Lesson Plan Ideas
Our alternative Science Museum exhibit (which we devised after the Science Museum was criticised for its exhibit which promoted the idea of pink and blue brains as well as “gender identity” orthodoxy) may help with ideas for lesson plans: http://www.transgendertrend.com/an-alternative-science-museum-exhibit-boy-or-girl/
Talks
Gender Identity Teaching in Schools
Thinking Differently
The talk below was given as part of the Thinking Differently conference at the Conway Hall, London in July 2016.