Sex & Relationship education (SRE) in the UK remains a highly politicized arena. In the wake of the recent PSHE review, media sources are now reporting that new funding agreements for new free schools and academies places ‘marriage’ centre stage. As the Telegraph notes: Continue reading “Marriage at the heart of sex education for Free Schools and Academies?”
Supporting Transgender Children in the Primary Classroom: A Reflection
Too often in discussions about gender identity the approach taken is extremely narrow. The discourse is largely dominated by the cisgendered, binary perspective that there is ‘male’ and that there is ‘female’ – and that both of these are biologically determined, stable categories. This is further reinforced when the discourse is situated in the context of children. The prevailing attitude is that any identity, theory or social group that destabilises such assumptions are too complicated and/or too ‘subversive’ to merit acknowledgement. It is therefore unsurprising that when school staff, policy makers and academics come to discus gender identity within the classroom, that transgendered children are usually entirely ignored. What can teachers can do to support such children? Continue reading “Supporting Transgender Children in the Primary Classroom: A Reflection”