Unisex toilets in primary schools

I really don't think giving examples of what happens on a foreign motorway or a supermarket etc is relevant on this thread. Children in primary schools will probably be using the toilets over 2000 times whilst at that school - not a few times a year on a foreign holiday. It's not at all unusual now for girls to start their periods at 8. This has to be taken into account as others have said. And the fact that boys (and men ) are as a group are disgusting in their aim so individual fully enclosed cubicles are not the answer either. I'm with roses on this.

Absolutely absurd..what is it with minority groups who seem to be dictating all this nonsense. For goodness sake it's like heterosexual S are a minority...they are the majority. Let children alone...it's abuse. Let them be ignorant of all this left wing rubbish until they are old enough to enquire. Makes me sick to the back teeth!

I know that many secondary schools now have unisex, but individual toilets, so not a row of cubicles in a cloakroom but a row of individual toilets with hand basins etc. in them along a corridor for use by any person who needs them! The aim was to not have a room where a number of kids could disappear into!

We had unisex toilets in the infant dept but boys/girls in the juniors. The accessible toilet and staff toilets were unisex.No space for separate ones!

Why is transgender left wing?

Penstemmon it seems that all things that didn't happen in the 50's or that grans dont agree with are "left wing" on this site .Or the people who agree with it are leftie loonies....

Ruth1958 it may surprise you that LGBT people existed in the last century and the one before that.In those days of course people were forced to conform to what was thought"normal" often causing them to live a lie in misery.Would you rather we return to those days than people be able to live the lives they feel they were born to live .Being gay or bi sexual or transgender isn't a disease ,I'm very proud of the two young trans boys I know...it took a lot of courage for them to speak out and as one of them has recently fought cancer had operations ,months of treatment,chem and radiation.It might well have been simpler for him to carry on as a girl.... it wasn't something he approached lightly.They are not impacting on YOUR life in any way .. unisex toilets mean they cant be beratted for using the "wrong" loo .Its not some left wing conspiracy to make you feel threatened

Earlier on this thread it was stated that children of primary school age should not know about LGBGT issues. I asked but got no reply to my question about my DGCs being involved in their aunt's civil partnership ceremony. I know that many on GN have gay sons and daughters. Are we all meant to keep this from the children in the family? Or can we simply allow them to grow up embracing the fact that 2 aunts or 2 uncles can be in a happy loving relationship? Perhaps these children, brought up to be tolerant, will be the ones who'll support their classmates through this blatant prejudice.
When I asked a teacher friend how pupils react when faced with transgender issues, she told me that the vast majority see it as 'no big deal'.

Maybe ruth has a view on gay relationships within families.

I've always known gay and lesbian people, family,workmates and close friends.So I was very disturbed when a friend who had a family member who was a paedophile was horrified that my young son was "allowed "to be taken out by his lesbian cousin....who he loves and who he has known is gay since he was very young.My friend said she couldn't let HER children associate with GAY's and she was glad they didn't have anything like THAT in her family.Like I said its NOT contagious nor is it a disease ... and he was much safer with his cousin than he would have been with hers ,a supposedly happily married man with children

Yorkshiregel Welcome to the 21st century!
How come talking to children about gay and lesbian relationships, when questions have been asked by a child is has been interpreted as "sexualising children at an early age."
If a young child asks then they need a sensible answer. It does not need to go into all details just answer what they have asked.
When a four year old asked how babies got into a mummies tummy is it thought by some on here that providing an appropriate answer is "sexualising children." ?

The damage that must have been caused, perhaps in our parents and grandparents day, by not talking about things like that was tremendous. My mother, born in 1920, had trouble explaining anything to do with bodily functions never mind sex.

Sexualisation of children is about the way they dress/behave etc. Asking who their boyfriend/girlfriend is when they are too young etc. I saw a 3/4 yr old boy with a teeshirt that said "lock up your daughters" I found that distasteful. Teaching young children about their bodies, their right to control who touches them, good & bad 'secrets', that love and respect need to underpin relationships etc. is what primary sex ed is all about. Of course they ned to know that, whilst hetero sexual relationships are most common, there are other possibilities but that the fundamental principles/values of when & who you eventually have a sexual relationship with are the same regardless of your partner's gender. .

I do think we can all be guilty of projecting our own negative experiences of our youth onto today's youngsters. Girls (&boys) are often far better informed than the 50s /60s generation re puberty etc. So periods,whilst still a bind, are not such a taboo subject and generally girls are more confident in managing menstruation. I am sure we can find anecdotal examples of neg. experience but generally I think things are better..even by the fact that sanitary towels are not the huge great hammocks of cotton wool a gauze,clipped to a twisted elastic belt, that were Dr Whites!!

Sexualisation of children? what on earth are you on about. We ARE different and that's the way it is.

lOVE IT

lOVE IT

In my world, yes of course you will find a small percentage of children born in the wrong bodies and I'm 100 percent on board with a sex change. However it seems now that what I call a "fetish" and there are many is, which is fine by me, being allowed to dominate common sense for fear of not being PC.

Children know they are different. Hence all those inquisitive games of doctors & nurses! The younger children are aware of differences/ different lifestyles etc. the less they are likely to be 'hung up' about things. That is why children who have frequent/ regular contact with children/adults with disabilities, people of different races/religions, LGBT etc etc do not feel awkward when meeting someone new who may be different from them.

My DGD thought, then aged 5, it eminently sensible that her 2nd cousin lives with another man.. boys like boy things so why wouldn't they?

Still don't understand your use of "sexualisation" a lot here Pen. It's ok to be different but to make everyone else feel guilty about not being is beyond the pail really.

I was just trying to clarify the term as I felt it had been used to describe sex education. To me sexualisation of children is treating them, through dress, behaviour & attitude, as though they are post adolescent sexual beings. In a nutshell sex education for young children, to me, is about teaching children to recognise their emotions & know their bodies as well as their rights and responsibilities in keeping themselves and others emotionally and physically safe.
I was not trying to be contentious!

stillalive I used the word sexualisation once. In my world that is not a lot

The term "sexualised" "sexualisation" is often used as a "technical" description of the behaviour of children who have been sexually abused at a young age and are acting out some of their behaviour towards other children in manner that is abusive and not age appropriate.

This is not just small children discovering there own bodies.
It is not at all the right terminology to use when talking about chidren becoming aware of their own sexual feelings and knowledge.

Oh boy! Plenty of scope for the "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" game then.

Boys and girls want a bit of privacy over their privates, so do men and women. This is not on at all. You may as well bring back mixed wards then. A minority is just that.

Mixed wards have never gone away.

In some cases no. But in an ideal world they would. General wards (non acute) and Im sure you knew what I meant Ana.