School governors urged to check relationships and sex education policies
Christian school governors are being urged to check relationships and sex education policies for harmful transgender ideology.
The warning comes from a Christian mother who was recently reinstated as a parent governor at her children's school.
She was removed by the Gateshead primary school after she raised concerns that resources promoting contested gender ideology were to be used in lessons without the governing body considering if they broke education laws.
According to the mother, lesson materials encouraged children to question their own gender identity and take concerns to outside bodies rather than parents.
The school's policy also endorsed the controversial 'genderbread person' graphic that alleges a spectrum of gender identity from zero to 100, and that being a man or woman is not linked to biological sex.
She was reinstated following an order by the High Court. The court also granted her anonymity in order to protect her children who still attend the school.
Her plea comes as many school governors prepare to meet for the first time since the start of the new academic year.
"As a school governor, at the start of the new academic year you are often presented with so many school policies to formally adopt that it might be tempting to simply rubber-stamp them," she said.
"However, I urge all Christian, indeed any, governors to inspect their school's RSE policies very carefully. When I did, I was shocked."
She continued, "I was concerned at the devastation that might be done to children from teaching gender ideology. In my case I was a lone voice. Huge pressure was put on me and eventually I was forced out. It took legal action to get both the governing body and local authority to accept that the decision to remove me was unlawful.
"But this admission, and my reinstatement by the High Court, has reaffirmed a governor's rightful, legal responsibility to question policies to ensure that everything done in the school is lawful and keeps the best interests of pupils in mind.
"I encourage all governors to investigate what's in their own RSE policy and question what resources are being used in their school."
She was supported by The Christian Institute in her successful legal challenge. The organisation has echoed her call to governors to be proactive in checking their school's RSE policies.
Ciarán Kelly, the Institute's Deputy Director, said: "It is clear to us that in many schools today, resources promoted by Stonewall and other groups include the discredited idea that 'gender identity' can be different from biological sex – an idea that has no basis in science.
"Many policies give little or no consideration to what is suitable for the age, or religious background of the pupils the lessons will be foisted upon."