THE Church’s National Society for education has updated its latest anti-bullying guidance for church schools, after a period of consultation.
The guidance, Flourishing for All, includes advice on how you can support gender-questioning pupils. It was first released in July (News, 12 July), and an updated version was published on Thursday.
This is to be rolled out to the C of E’s 4623 schools. It is claimed to be the ultimate version; nevertheless, it is going to be reviewed again, and subject to further changes, once the Government’s guidance pertaining to Gender Questioning Children (2023) and the updated Relationships, Health and Sex Education (RHSE) guidance (2024) — still in draft form — have been finalised.
Significant changes within the church guidance include replacing using the acronym LGBT+ with LGB/GQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual/Gender Questioning) when referring to children and young people, consistent with the Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE) 2024 document.
A paragraph pertaining to freedom of expression has been expanded. It still states that college leaders “might want to ensure a balance between enabling all parties to be heard whilst protecting those of their school community for whom listening to particular viewpoints on gender and sexuality may be painful”.
But it now adds: “This includes ensuring that pupils and adults who hold a selected view, on the premise of their religious or non-religious worldview, understand that they’re legally entitled to accomplish that. In Church schools, the expectation could be that every one views are expressed consistent with the pastoral principles cited above.”
Another recent paragraph makes it clear that “It will not be appropriate that a primary school’s strategy for combating bullying towards LGB/GQ pupils or LGBT+ adults should give attention to any aspect of differing sexual practices (i.e. what people do with their bodies sexually, although human reproduction could also be a component of the science curriculum).”
The definition of “transgender” has also been faraway from the glossary, to make it clear that the document, when the word is used, is at all times referring to transgender adults.
