Head of Education Steve Beegoo reacts to the latest government guidance on sex education in schools
At Christian Concern, we have been campaigning against the inappropriate and disturbing nature of how Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is being implemented in schools.
We are contacted frequently by Christian parents and teachers distressed by what is being welcomed into the classroom.
After the mounting evidence alarmed the Prime Minister last year, he called for a review into Sex Education. That advice has resulted in new draft guidance from the Department for Education, out this week.
This draft guidance includes the statement, “… this updated guidance includes clear age limits for the teaching of the most sensitive content and specifies that the contested topic of gender identity should not be taught.”
Will schools follow the new guidance?
This guidance is separate from, but linked to the draft Gender Questioning Children Guidance, whose consultation closed in March.
Various organisations, unions and activists have already said they will ignore that guidance and it seems likely that many will respond similarly to this draft RSHE guidance.
There has been a history of resistance from those ideologically bound to a belief that children have an innate gender identity and that early Sex Education is the best way to free children to be ‘who they are’. They seek to find ways around government guidance and are even supported by LGBT activist lawyer firms who provide dubious advice.
However, in reference to the new draft guidance on RSE the Education Hub of the Department for Education website states, in strong terms, “Following the consultation, the guidance will be statutory, which means schools must follow it unless there are exceptional circumstances.” It will be finalised ‘later this year’.
Harmful content still being taught
The DfE website recognises that:
“schools will need time to make changes to their curriculum, so we will allow an implementation period before the guidance comes into force.”
This acknowledges that curriculum that is counter to the guidance is already present and needs removing. This is because many schools have adopted and embedded gender ideology, and inappropriate, confusing and therefore harmful content in their curriculum for our children. This will have been highlighted by the review panel.
It is notable that Sex Education is now being precluded from being delivered to those under the age of 9. We are reaping the fruits from the work of brave MPs, such as Miriam Cates, who had begun to push back by commissioning reports and raising questions in parliament. The resistance to the inappropriate curriculum, predominantly came from right-leaning political parties.
We also want to say ‘thank you’ to any of you who have also been resisting inappropriate RSE, supported by our team or our resources.
Parents and teachers
Courageous parents have also been prepared to go public about their stories.
Parents Calvin and Nicola Watts, supported by Christian Concern, were prepared to speak out and say that trans indoctrination of primary school children was not okay.
They had experienced this in their Church of England school, which used a book promoting the idea of children being “both a boy and a girl”, or “neither a boy nor a girl”, or “non- binary” to 8-year-olds.
The children were taught that people “guess” about a baby’s gender when born. The resources also suggested that: “You might feel like your gender changes from day to day or from year to year”.
Kristie Higgs lost her job as a school pastoral assistant for sharing her concerns about RSE on a private Facebook post.
Specifically, these were concerns about how transgenderism and compulsory sex education was to be taught at her son’s Church of England primary school.
With our help, she won the last stage of her case at the Employment Appeal Tribunal but has taken her case even higher to the Court of Appeal in hope of securing an even stronger victory. Her case is due to be heard later this year.
We have continued to support many parents and teachers, who will now feel vindicated by what the latest draft guidance acknowledges.
Parents should know what their children are being taught
Parents who have been obstructed from seeing the curriculum, despite Gillian Keagan’s recent edicts, will be further emboldened by the draft guidance which states that, “it reinforces the vital principle that parents have a right to know about everything their children are being taught and be given proper chance to understand and discuss it.”
Parents are regularly being blocked from even being able to see the materials which schools are using. The vast majority of parents, other than the most ‘progressive’, still would take issue with their children having, for example, masturbation explained to them by adults from outside the home. And yet it has become an expected part of the recommended curriculum from the ‘sex positive’ organisations inundating schools with their training and resources.
A Scottish government agency even recommends lessons on masturbation.
The need for safety
Mr Sunak said in announcing the guidance: “Parents rightly trust that when they send their children to school, they are kept safe and will not be exposed to disturbing content that is inappropriate for their age.
“That’s why I was horrified to hear reports of this happening in our classrooms last year.
“I will always act swiftly to protect our children and this new guidance will do exactly that, while supporting teachers to teach these important topics sensitively and giving parents access to curriculum content if they wish.”
The Prime Minister is effectively conceding that many children have not been safe at school because of what their teachers have been teaching them.
Any Christian parent understands that it is their responsibility to protect and nurture the children God graciously gives them to steward. Why would you knowingly send them somewhere unsafe? Our article earlier this year highlighted the many areas where safety has become a key issue. The RSE curriculum is but one of many areas of concern.
The scale of the problem
Many have tried to suggest that the harmful and confusing Relationship and Sex Education is uncommon.
The education secretary admitted to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she did not know how widespread the issue was saying, “it’s not something that we’ve gone and done a particular survey of“, but said she did not think it was common.
However the Association of Christian Teachers’ survey last year demonstrated that over half of Christian teachers had been expected to deliver content that, as a Christian, “conflicts with your views on marriage, relationships, gender or sexuality”. Nearly a third of them said that Gender Identity Theory was presented as fact.
Discerning Christian teachers tend to work where they feel their faith can be appropriately expressed and their work aligns to their calling under God. But even these teachers are saying clearly that these ideas have become widely embedded and taught to children.
Is it any wonder so many come to believe they have been born in the wrong body?
There is still a myth that it is relatively few schools who welcome this teaching. The true scale of the problem was highlighted in the New Social Covenant report.
Undoubtedly, the politically incorrect truth is that where the LGBT ‘diversity organisations’, such as Stonewall, Just Like Us or Mermaids, have been welcomed to provide resources, train activists and shape curriculum, the RSE has become totally inappropriate.
Consultation
We will be putting together our advice so that you can respond to the consultation by 11 July.
It seems there are many positive developments, in no small part due to our lobbying, advising, legal cases and support work, but we will be studying the ‘small print’, as often loopholes may remain.
Pray with us that the tide will turn, and that children will be protected from the satanic agenda to sexualise and confuse the children.
