I knew what he meant and we laughed about it, but it always bothered me that certain colours were ‘for girls’ and others ‘for boys’. If you have ever walked down the aisles of a children’s toy shop, you’ll have seen this played out on a huge scale.
For a moment, swap the aisles of a toy shop to the school doorways of Afghanistan, where we have learnt in recent weeks that female students are no longer welcome into secondary schools and we see how detrimental gender stereotyping can be in the pursuit of human flourishing. In recent years, there have been many campaigns to combat gender stereotypes and to promote gender equality between men and women. You may remember the powerful Always #likeagirl films and advertisements. In our Ten Ten resources, we ensure that the message of equality is loud and clear and that discrimination and bullying is never acceptable.
As we encourage our children and young people to grow in their identity through Relationships, Sex and Health Education, our starting point is that we want to share with them the beautiful truth that they are made in the image and likeness of God. A God who is love and who loves them deeply.
Our Christian faith teaches us that as human beings, we are different from other created things. While we share certain common instincts and drives with the rest of creation – for example, hunger, sex and survival – we are separated from the rest of creation through our intellect and will.
While we may be created male and female, we firmly believe that our gender doesn’t determine whether we’ll like cars or crafting, boxing or biking, blue or burgundy, dancing or drama. These are things that are not related to our gender, but can be conditioned by our cultural context.
We are also conscious that there are different ideas on the understanding of equality, freedom and fluidity of sexuality and gender and the government asks educators to share these different perspectives with students in secondary schools.
KS1 Lesson
Session 1: Girls and Boys
This session is all about celebrating our God-given bodies and the things they enable us to do! In an age-appropriate way, children will be encouraged to notice similarities and celebrate differences between girls and boys on physical, emotional and spiritual levels. There is also an optional* section for discussing external body parts (genitalia).
Go to SessionYear 8 Lesson
Session 1: Appreciating Differences
Building on the teaching that our deepest identity is in God, students will learn about male/female differences including issues such as gender stereotypes, gender identity and gender dysphoria. Students will understand that equality is of great importance, and that we should celebrate our uniqueness. Students will learn about different perspectives regarding gender and transgender identity and they will know that bullying and marginalising others is always wrong because every person is a child of God, worthy of love.
Go to SessionRelated content:
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What’s new for 2024-2025 from Ten Ten Resources?
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How stories change the world
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Gender Questioning Children in Schools and RSHE
Exploring the new draft Government guidance
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Where to find resources that support safeguarding…
… in Life to the Full and Life to the Full Plus!
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7 Key Areas For Consideration in Life to the Full Primary
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Why is pornography a problem?
On Thursday 19th October 2023 Ten Ten Resources will be live-streaming a discussion session for parents and carers of children in KS2 and KS3 on the subject of pornography. Commissioned by the Catholic Education Service, this session is available free of charge and will be live streamed at 9.15am, 3.30pm and 6.00pm. Here, Ten Ten’s CPD Leader Nicola Sweetman tells us why parents should be encouraged to discuss pornography with their children.
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What’s new for Life to the Full Primary?
Keep track of the latest changes in Life to the Full/Plus
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What’s new for Life to the Full Secondary?
Useful updates and reminders as you begin the new term
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Subscription Packages and Loyalty Discounts for 2023/4
Discover how bundling your Life to the Full, CPD and Collective Worship subscriptions will give you amazing savings!
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Life to the Full Plus – How it Fits
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An Interview with… Rod Isaacs
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Change in age for marriage and civil partnerships
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New content: ‘FGM’ and ‘Death and Grief’
Find out more about our new resources ‘FGM’ and ‘Death and Grief’ for Life to the Full, along with important guidance for SLT and class teachers…
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“How many times do you need to be reminded?”
What is a spiral curriculum and how can the Life to the Full programme be considered one?
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CPD – Watch again
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A rubbish dump, a beautiful lady and some old bones…
What do these three things have in common?
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Life to the Full Primary: Is it PSHE?
We are often asked: “Does ‘Life to the Full’ cover the national curriculum for PSHE?” This is a question which doesn’t have a simple yes/no answer!
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Is Your School In Wales?
If the answer is ‘yes’, then you may be interested to learn how we are working with the Catholic Education Service Wales to help you implement the new statutory Guidance and Code for RSE.
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St Bernadette Relics Tour and Ten Ten Resources
We are delighted to be an official partner of the St Bernadette Relics Tour…
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Should Schools Consult With Parents About RSHE Every Year?
Let’s have a look at what the DfE says and how you can fulfil this through your ‘Life to the Full’ subscription…
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The Real Mo Farah…
…and how you can explore the real issues of human trafficking with students.
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CPD Sessions for the Start of the New Academic Year…
Whether you need to familiarise returning staff with programme updates or you need to get new staff up to speed, we’ve got sessions for you starting on 1st September...
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Hub Highlights
Looking back over this academic year, we’ve had so many great articles to share with you through the Teacher Hub that we’ve decided to compile some of the most popular to share with you again in case you missed them the first time round!
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What’s New For 2022-23?
The first thing you will notice at the start of the new academic year is that we will have a new website. We have been working with some wonderful website designers and developers to address some of the key issues that our users have fed back. We hope that our new website will improve your user experience and the way you access the content.
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Have You Seen Our New CPD Package?
Due to the amazing success of our CPD events this year, we are delighted to announce…
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Ideas For Funding Your Ten Ten Resources Subscription
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Now Is The Time To Resubscribe
Find out how to renew your subscription here… Did you know that most Life to the Full subscriptions expire on 31st July 2022? It is the same case with the majority of Combined Collective Worship and Life to the Full subscriptions. To maintain access and to prepare for the new academic year in September, schools need to renew.
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Natural Family Planning: Myths and Misconceptions
What might a Catholic say to the argument that Natural Family Planning (NFP) is still a couple ‘playing God’, albeit in a more natural way than using contraception?
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The Law and DIY Abortions
The phrase ‘DIY abortion’ might conjure up tragic images from times before abortion was legalised; characterised by fear, judgement of ‘unfeeling’ or ‘promiscuous’ women and a lack of understanding or communication about changing attitudes towards sex. A particularly harrowing episode of ‘Call the Midwife’ involving a backstreet abortion springs to mind. Now, more than 50 years on, have things changed?
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‘It is love that has explained everything to me’
‘It is love that has explained everything to me,’ is a quotation from St John Paul II, but what did teachers from around the country think about learning about his Theology of the Body?
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Communicating with Parents About RSHE
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Keeping Children Safe in Education – Secondary Schools
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#PrayforUkraine
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Warning Children About Pornography
How young is too young to warn children about pornography?
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Human Trafficking – Sixth Form Resource
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Religion Is Booming On Social Media
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Keeping Children Safe in Education
Many of our colleagues in primary schools have been keen to know …
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A Time To Be Born And A Time To Die
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(The Pope’s) Sex Education
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Ten Ten’s Guidance on Protected Characteristics
Ten Ten has published guidance which provides a summary of the expectation on schools to teach about the Protected Characteristics and guidance on how we support Catholic primary and secondary schools in this teaching through our programme, Life to the Full.
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Standard vs Super
If you came here expecting an in-depth character analysis of Clark Kent and Superman across the entire franchise, I’m afraid you’ll be sorely disappointed. (Sorry-not-sorry about the deliberately misleading picture and title).
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One Kind Word
Bullying is not funny, I think we’d all agree on that. Therefore, I was quite surprised to find that bullying related humour is a thing!
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My Three Confessions…
My friends and family sometimes say that I share too much too soon, so maybe it’s too soon to share these confessions after only working with Ten Ten Resources for four months.
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Key Decisions
In creating the Life to the Full programme we have tried to pitch the resources at an age-appropriate level for children within each learning stage.
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New CPD Courses
We are delighted to announce that we have created a number of exciting new CPD opportunities for both subscribers and non-subscribers in the areas of Collective Worship and RSHE.
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Relationship Watch
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All around the world this week, people have been amazed and inspired by Zheng Tao, arguably one of the most skillful athletes to walk the face of the earth.
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