Free To Speak
Up For
Concern is increasing over the content of lessons taught via the relationships and sex education (RSE) curriculum.
The overspill from lessons into school policies and environments is creating a culture in which safeguarding is regularly overridden in favour of ideological positions.
Free To Speak wants to help you to voice your concerns about RSE teaching and the policies in your child's school, or the educational setting in which you work.
What is the problem?
Gender Theory In Schools
Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is now a statutory part of the curriculum in all areas of the UK. However, unregulated external providers are producing factually inaccurate materials for use in schools that are developmentally inappropriate and often completely ignore normal safeguarding protocols. These materials are widely used to fulfil the government requirements for teaching RSE. None of them are accredited by the DfE or properly monitored by regulatory bodies.
Department for Education guidance states that parents should be involved in the development of the RSE curriculum and shown the materials that will be used. Some schools are refusing to allow the viewing of materials, often citing copyright infringement.
Department for Education guidance also states that political issues, such as gender theory, are taught with a ‘balanced presentation of opposing views’ and that children should not be exposed to oversexualised content in the RSE curriculum.
Some materials are shockingly explicit, promote extreme sexual behaviours and are not age-appropriate in any way. Very little balance is provided and contested ideas are presented as fact. Other resources use harmful stereotypes to suggest that someone who doesn’t conform to gender stereotypes may really be the opposite sex.
The overspill of gender theory from the classroom into school policies and environments is evident in the growing number of gender-neutral or mixed sex changing facilities and accommodation, the practice of children being socially transitioned without the involvement of parents and even some schools promising children absolute confidentiality – a safeguarding red flag.
Free To Speak aims to demonstrate that these issues are found in all the nations across the UK and all types of settings – in private and state schools, primary schools, middle and secondary schools, post-16 settings, and in single sex and faith schools.
Add Your Voice
Help us show how widespread the problems are.
We need your testimony to demonstrate that teaching of contentious gender theory isn't just a problem created by a few activist schools and teachers, but one of a wider culture within education that overrides facts and evidence in favour of an ideological agenda.
If you are a concerned parent, teacher, pupil or staff member, we want you to add your anonymous testimony to our growing body of evidence.
Who are we?
We are many and we want to tell our stories
We come from every part of the UK and cover every stage of education for under 18s.
The problems are widespread and many who speak out via our website have felt unable to do so publicly, for fear of negative reactions.
Resources, policies and environments which do not prioritise facts, truth and the safety and dignity of all pupils should be open to challenge, as safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility.
We want to help anyone who has concerns to speak out – safely and anonymously.
Teachers
Teachers are worried their careers may be jeopardised if they raise the alarm about the social transition of children or the lack of safeguarding within the school environment.
Parents
Parents are concerned that what their children are being taught is unevidenced and ideological. They want their children to receive a balanced and factual education.
Pupils
Pupils are being targeted by their peers and feel unsupported by teachers if they speak out about their own beliefs or question the doctrines being taught in the curriculum.
School Staff
School Staff are compelled to follow school policies which fail to safeguard children and can encourage withholding information from parents.
Testimonials
Recent Submissions
The school refused to discuss my concerns about the lesson. Most staff wear rainbow lanyards, and many put pronouns in their email signatures.
My daughter is no longer in that school.
Then, she completed homework about a man wearing hotpants and a pink wig, which I pointed out sounded sexualised (while acknowledging that these words made sense phonics-wise). I also complained about this.
After that, a child in her class said that his parents had told him that people can choose whether to be a man or a woman when they grow up. The teacher said this was true. I have yet to complain, because it is exhausting, and I really like the teacher. It's on the to-do list. What hope do these kids have, with queer theory introduced at such a young age?
When she informed the school she was a boy, they changed her name and pronouns without any discussion with us. We began to receive communications from this single-sex school about our son. Six months after we asked for a meeting, we finally got one...and were told this change was "just like a nickname".
I later found out that gender identity theory was being taught across lessons - from Spanish to PE. One child at least was punished for saying that humans can't change sex.
By this time, my daughter was wearing a binder, demanding puberty blockers and threatening suicide (she had been taught that 48% of trans-identified children attempt suicide, and sent me the Stonewall link). The school refused to help with my concerns, even correcting me when I referred to her in legal name.
Eventually, a member of the senior leadership team was convinced by the reams of information I had sent to overhaul the curriculum, remove all the Stonewall and Mermaids posters from around the building, and stop paying the Stonewall Champions programme.
I hope that these changes will stop what has happened to us from harming other children and families. But it may be too late for us.
Worried about Speaking Up?
Feel afraid to speak to your school or educational setting?
Let us do it for you
We know it can be hard to speak up – many people feel they could jeopardise their career progression or even lose their livelihood if they raise concerns or objections. Parents feel their child may be treated unfairly if they become ‘that parent’ who is seen as troublesome.
We have set up a method of alerting schools to the issues without parents, teachers or staff having to reveal their names or put their jobs or working relationships on the line. We can send a letter to your school outlining the concerns that are being raised, along with some helpful links and ways to engage with parents, pupils and staff who are affected.
Simply provide us with an email address for your school and we’ll do the rest.