School that’s banned ‘hello boys and girls’ ... because it’s too sexist
A PRIMARY school head has sparked controversy after banning teachers from using phrases such as ‘boys and girls’ for pupils as young as four over claims they are sexist.
Sarah Hewitt- Clarkson has also trained children to hold up signs calling out staff or visitors if they use the wrong language by mistake.
Other phrases banned at Anderton Park primary in Birmingham include ‘let’s go, guys’ and ‘man up’, over fears they are not inclusive of girls.
Mrs Hewitt-Clarkson, 50, said prohibiting gender-specific phrases made female and transgender pupils feel more comfortable.
However, critics branded the idea ‘ridiculous’ and said youngsters were being turned into ‘wallflower kids’ who are constantly ‘listening for offence’.
Explaining her dislike of the phrase ‘boys and girls’ yesterday, Mrs Hewitt-Clarkson said it was wrong to divide children on the basis of ‘protected characteristics’.
She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘It’s a strange way of dividing a group of people... There may be a couple of children in schools who don’t really identify with being a boy or a girl, so “good morning everyone” is a far more inclusive way of saying everyone, instead of choosing a division that is one particular characteristic of your person.’
She said the proscribed language was ‘part of the culture’ of the school and if visitors break the rules by saying ‘good morning guys’ they will be corrected by pupils.
‘Some of our girls will say, “I’m not a guy, we don’t use that phrase in our school,”’ she added.
‘It’s a phrase we’re used to, to mean everyone, but actually it doesn’t mean everyone.’
Children have even been trained to hold up posters reading ‘I’m not a guy’ if anyone slips up. ‘If they go unchallenged then schools become part of the drip feed of these labels we put on boys or girls,’ Mrs Hewitt-Clarkson said.
‘That boys are strong, girls are weak; boys stand up for themselves, girls do what they’re told.’
Pupils who challenge ‘sexist’ language, such as calling an assertive girl ‘ bossy’, are rewarded with a certificate.
Children also monitor their reading books and worksheets for stereotypes. However, broadcaster Nana Akua told the programme: ‘I’d be very worried if this woman was teaching my kids. What I think we’re doing here is creating a generation of wallflower kids who are listening for an offence.’
And Chris McGovern, a former government education adviser, said: ‘This is burdening children with adult responsibilities.
‘By trying to correct children’s language at a very early age, one is actually limiting, restraining and burdening them with an anxiety they don’t need.
‘This is an attempt to control language, which is a very sinister development. It is part of a woke philosophy across education.’
One parent wrote on Twitter: ‘I’d quite like school to teach my kids to read and write. I don’t need them wasting time on banning phrases like “morning guys”.’
Another wrote: ‘I am a teacher and think this is ridiculous.’
The school became the centre of protests in 2019 after lessons on same- sex relationships were delivered to the mostly Muslim pupil population.
Mrs Hewitt-Clarkson, a mother of two, was appointed in 2012 and has fought a running battle with hardline parents who dislike her ideas.
She once told the National Association of Head Teachers that she ‘grew up in a home filled with music, Methodist teachings, a headteacher father, and love of Shakespeare’.
‘Part of a woke philosophy’