Education 

Classroom Lesson Plans

Welcome to the classroom lesson plans section. This section offers you a series of lesson plans and supporting slides to enable you to include the trans experience through a variety of lesson plans in all key stages.

The Penguin Stories

Lesson Plan for the Penguin Land Books: Gender Diversity for Nursery and Primary School Children

Age: Suggested age range 3-6.

Lesson Details: ‘Penguin land’ stories (Gender Identity Research & Education Society)

Three short stories, each take 2-3 minutes to read to the class. The stories start in the same way, but each ends differently:

  • Sally’s story is about a penguin child whose gender identity as a girl, was not immediately understood by her family, they thought she was a boy;
  • Tom’s story is the same, but in reverse, the family thought he was a girl;
  • Blur’s story is about an identity that is neither boy nor girl (non-binary, gender queer)

Lesson Context: Most schools are subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty, and all are required to abide by the Equality Act 2010. Understanding gender diversity starts here, at primary school level, before children’s views become influenced by the prejudices of the adults around them. In law, gender diversity is as important as race and ethnicity diversity. Religion, belief, or cultural norms may not be used to discriminate against those who are gender non-conforming.

All Lesson Materials are available to download by clicking on the links below:

Peter’s Story

Lesson Plan for Peters Story:  Gender Diversity for School Children

Age: 7-11 (suggested age, but teachers should use their own judgement about the readiness of children for this story)

Lesson Details: Peter’s Story – The core of the story is the famous ‘Owl and the Pussy-Cat’ poem which, in order to avoid linguistic associations that were not applicable in Edward Lear’s day, has been changed to the Owl and the Kitty-cat. The subtext is that Peter, the central character, has a parent who has transitioned to live as a woman. His teacher’s response is a key feature. The story takes less than 10 minutes to read.

Lesson Context: Most schools are subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty, and all are required to abide by the Equality Act 2010. Understanding gender diversity starts when children are school age, before their views become influenced by the prejudices of the adults around them. In law, gender diversity is as important as race and ethnicity diversity. Religion, belief, or cultural norms may not be used to discriminate against those who are gender non-conforming. Other protected characteristics are touched on in Peter’s story: sexual orientation, disability; and race.

All Lesson Materials are available below:

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