We were delighted to be joined for this podcast by Andrew Howard who is Curriculum Leader of PSHE at Bristol's largest secondary school, covering sex and relationship education and issues of equality, diversity and inclusion among other topics. The school Andrew works at supports many pupils with their gender identity, and has won accolades for its responsiveness to incidents of transphobia, homophobia, sexism and racism through curriculum.  

We had lots of questions (many of which we had been asked by parents) for Andrew, not least ‘what is gender and sexuality?’ Andrew answered every question we had clearly and with sensitivity (and the most important thing we learnt was that you really can’t get it wrong…) 

 We also talked about: 

• Why it’s so important to talk to children about gender and sexuality 
• How schools educate teachers and staff on the topic 
• Whether you can get it wrong 
• How parents can approach these conversations with their children 
• Coping with hostile environments at home 
• The Equality Act and what it means 
• How to support people who are exploring their gender or sexuality 
• Terminology – what’s right and what isn’t 
• The difference between sex and gender 

Links  

• Advice for parents and carers of trans people - https://genderedintelligence.co.uk/projects/kip/transidentities/parents.html  
• Off the Record (Bristol based charity) - https://www.otrbristol.org.uk 
• Brook - https://www.brook.org.uk 

Some recommended books for younger children: 

• Perfectly Norman 
• Julian is a Mermaid 
• My shadow is pink 
• Pink is for boys 

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Bespoke Family 1:1 Parent Consultations: https://www.bespokefamily.co.uk/parent-consultations   

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