Schools and safeguarding • Page 3
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Schools need clear guidance
The Department for Education has promised to publish new draft guidance on sex and gender for schools and colleges in England before the end of this school year. Schools need simple rules to give children, parents and teachers clear expectations. We are calling on the DfE to spell out that...
21st May 2023
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Response to Victor Madrigal-Borloz’s report on the UK
The UN Independent Expert Victor Madrigal-Borloz has issued an extraordinary report at the end of his ten-day mission to the UK. The thrust of it is the familiar claim that speaking clearly about the material reality of the two sexes amounts to “hate”, alongside the equally familiar dismissal of...
12th May 2023
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Practical ideas for parents of gender-questioning teenagers
Sex Matters is publishing the final part in a series on gender identity in teenagers today. Aimed at parents, the series sets out reasons teenagers might start to question their gender, treatment and outcomes, and practical ideas for parents and carers of gender-questioning teenagers. Writing in The Critic today,...
17th April 2023
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DfE guidance must be clear: schools cannot facilitate “social transition”
Reports about the Department for Education’s forthcoming guidance on trans issues for schools are encouraging, going quite some way towards our recommendations. The Times reports that schools will be told not to allow children to use opposite-sex facilities or play contact sports for the opposite sex, and to tell...
16th April 2023
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Asleep at the Wheel: An Examination of Gender and Safeguarding in Schools
Lottie Moore
Schools are increasingly becoming influenced by gender ideology, to the extent that fundamental safeguarding principles are being compromised by school’s approaches to children with gender distress and their peers. -
What can parents do about gender ideology in schools?
At Sex Matters, we often hear from parents concerned about what their child is being told at school about gender identity. They may hear about lessons in which sex is described as fluid, changeable or a spectrum, or in which gender stereotypes are presented as defining whether someone is...
10th March 2023
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Sex and gender identity: keep your pupils safe and comply with the law – guidance for schools in Wales
Our schools guidance, produced together with Transgender Trend, has been revised for schools in Wales. It draws on guidance from the Welsh Government, relevant legislation from the UK government, the interim report of the Cass Review, EHRC guidance, and others. The model policy is now available...
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Gender critical author HELEN JOYCE accuses her son’s prestigious sixth form of risking safety by allowing trans pupils to use girls’ toilets and play for female teams
Helen Joyce for Mail Online
Government regulations say that schools must avoid indoctrination. Helen Joyce explains how her son's sixth form college in Cambridge fell short. -
Sex Matters at the Education for Women’s Liberation conference
UCL Women’s Liberation SIG and WPUK Saturday 4th February 9am to 10pm Institute of Education UCL, 20 Bedford Way, London, WC1H 0AL Come and see us at the Women’s Liberation 2023 conference! Visit the Sex Matters stall Pick up petition cards and postcards for Sex Matters campaigns. Meet Maya, Helen and...
2nd February 2023
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Transgender Trend
Founded in 2015 to draw attention to the harms done by gender-identity ideology to children, especially in schools and in medicine. In 2020 was given permission by the High Court to intervene in support of Keira Bell’s judicial review against the Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust. In March 2022,...
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What guidance from the Department for Education needs to say
As a survey commissioned by Sex Matters and carried out by YouGov last year showed, there has been a huge increase in the number of school pupils identifying as trans or non-binary, alongside huge disagreement about how best to manage this. The one thing that schools agree about is...
13th January 2023
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Sex and gender in schools: what government guidance needs to say
Sex Matters analyses what the Department for Education’s guidance should say, and sets out ten principles against which it should be judged.
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Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill and the UK
This paper, prepared by Sex Matters, considers whether the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (GRR Bill) is within the competence of the Scottish Parliament, examines the bill’s potential adverse effects and sets out considerations for a challenge under Section 33 or Section 35 of the Scotland Act.
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Clarify the Equality Act: sign the petition
The Equality Act 2010 protects everyone’s rights and covers everything from schools to hospitals, pubs to sports, and everybody’s workplace. It includes protection against sex-discrimination, and allows single-sex services. But on 13th December a judge in Scotland pronounced that Equality Act does not recognise biological sex as a protected...
16th December 2022
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Our response to the NHS interim service specification consultation
The NHS’s public consultation regarding the interim service specification for youth gender services ends on 4th December. We would encourage people to respond, including parents, teachers, school leaders and clinicians. We have published our full response. Sex Matters joins Transgender Trend and the Gay Men’s Network in welcoming the broad direction...
29th November 2022
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The need for a joined-up approach to children with gender dysphoria
Sex Matters’ response to NHS England’s interim service specification. We call on the NHS, the DfE, Ofsted and the EHRC to develop a shared conception of what are reasonable requests for social accommodation, based on a common understanding of the Equality Act and on safeguarding.
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Why Sex Matters is calling for clarification of the Equality Act 2010 – a briefing
Sex Matters has launched a petition calling on the government to clarify that in the Equality Act 2010, “sex” means biological sex, and is not modified by the Gender Recognition Act 2004. This would protect the rights of people of both sexes, as well as people who identify as...
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Trans rights are human rights!
Sex Matters is a human-rights organisation. We believe that universal human rights form a powerful framework for thinking about how a diversity of freedoms can be respected, while protecting against harm and maintaining an open and prosperous society. It is sometimes argued that those who call for clarity on...
9th November 2022
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Why sex matters for human rights – our organisational framework
Sex Matters’ mission is to promote clarity on sex in law and policy in order to protect everybody’s human rights. This document sets out the key human rights that are relevant, and why and how our work is guided by the promotion of human rights. (Also see our short guide...
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Sex Matters welcomes headteachers’ guidance
Sex Matters offers a qualified welcome to the new Guidance for maintained schools and academies in England on provision for transgender pupils published by the Association of School and College Leaders, Chartered College of Teaching, Confederation of School Trusts (CST), Institute of School Business Leadership, National Association of Head...
7th November 2022
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Women’s Rights Network
Combined grassroots groups of women who oppose sex self-ID. Supports local, in-person networking. Has topic-related groups (such as sports, prisons, schools) that create resources, including videos and podcasts and social-media posts, and coordinate national campaigns. Was a core member of the “Respect My Sex” campaign before the local elections...
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We call for a “Cass Review for Education”
Sex Matters together with Bayswater Support Group, Fair Play For Women, LGB Alliance, Safe Schools Alliance and Transgender Trend have written to the new Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, to draw her attention to the problem of gender ideology being promoted in schools. We ask her to:...
1st November 2022
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Letter to Gillian Keegan
We wrote to Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education, calling for a “Cass Review” for schools.
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Don’t water down the schools guidance – a plea from a 14-year-old girl
“Cynthia”, 14, writes… I recently read in The Times that Ministers were seeking a “compromise” concerning the Department for Education’s long-awaited transgender schools’ guidance and, as a 14-year-old-girl in secondary school, to say I am furious is an understatement. It is absolutely vital that we – teenage girls who...
19th October 2022
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Teenagers and gender identity
A trickle of teenagers, and especially girls, identifying out of their sex has become a torrent in recent years. Our new publication, part one of a series of three, is aimed at the parents of those teenagers. The authors, Matilda Gosling and Stella O’Malley, combine research expertise with practical professional...
10th October 2022
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Sex Matters in Schools webinar
Barrister Alice de Coverley and campaigner Shelley Charlesworth joined Sex Matters’ Helen Joyce and Maya Forstater on 3rd October 2022 to present the schools guidance produced by Transgender Trend and Sex Matters – Sex and gender identity: keep your pupils safe and comply with the law. For other Sex Matters...
3rd October 2022
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Merched Cymru (Women of Wales)
Non-aligned grassroots group working to protect the sex-based rights of women and girls in Wales, where there is little political opposition to gender-identity ideology. Produces a newsletter, and resources tailored to Welsh law, in particular to the regulations governing Welsh schools. Email: [email protected]
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DBS checks and identity verification: safeguarding loopholes created by changes of identity
An analysis by Keep Prisons Single Sex of the exceptional privacy rights given to those who change their gender as well as their identity.
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Safeguarding our Schools – Scotland
Grassroots volunteer organisation of parents, teachers, education professionals and others from a wide range of backgrounds, concerned that schools are being advised to use policies regarding gender identity that are based on misleading or inaccurate information. Informs decision-makers. Provides resources for parents and education professionals. Empowers parents, carers, teachers and...
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Transgenderism in Schools: Reconstructing Professional Responses to Transgenderism in Educational Settings
Rather than making use of longstanding legal frameworks to facilitate the inclusion of transgender children, schools and children’s services are instead adopting the woke policies promoted by lobbying groups. This is to the detriment of all children, argues David Buck.
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The Attorney General clarifies the law on single-sex services
On 10th August 2022 the Attorney General Suella Braverman gave a speech at the think-tank Policy Exchange. She noted that both public and private bodies are struggling to understand their obligations in relation to single-sex services and the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment. Her speech aimed to...
26th August 2022
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Genspect
International alliance founded in 2021 by parents and clinicians seeking a rational approach to gender issues. Has expanded to include detransitioners, desisters and people unhappy with their own transition, as well as other professionals such as educators and journalists. Creates resources on gender issues and seeks a better approach...