New guidelines aimed at reducing gender stereotyping in schools
New guidelines aimed at reducing gender stereotyping including the use of "sexist" terms such as "sissy" are set to be made available to schools.
According to the Sunday Times, children as young as five will be discouraged from using terms such as “sissy”, "man up" or "cupcake".
Clare Thomson, from the Institute of Physics, who helped to draw up the guidelines, told the newspaper: “Even low-level comments are potentially an issue with teachers using phrases such as ‘man up’.”
The guidelines, are said to be part of a drive for heads to introduce “gender policies”, which have been piloted in several schools.
Janice Callow, deputy head at Fairfields High School in Bristol, whose school took part in the pilot, said a volunteer group of girls was being assembled to identity the use sexist language.
The guidelines are also said to include advising schools to appoint senior teachers as “gender champions”, as well as developing policies to get girls and boys to study subjects that are more readily associated with the opposite gender.