Pronouns added to pupils’ records

SCHOOL record-keeping software now allows teachers to add pupils’ pronouns.

England’s largest school management system, ESS SIMS, covers thousands of children. The pronouns teachers can choose from include the traditional ‘he’ and ‘she’, but pupils also have the choice to identify as ‘they’, ‘Zie’, ‘Sie’, ‘Ey’, ‘Ve’, ‘Tey’ and ‘E’, the Mail can reveal.

The discovery has sparked fresh fears that the controversial ‘gender identity’ theory feared to be endangering child welfare is being normalised in schools.

Released last summer, guidance for ESS SIMS users says pronouns can be chosen by ‘pupil/students, applicants, contacts, staff members and agents’.

Once applied to an individual on the system, their personal pronouns are displayed in bold at the ‘top of their record’ for those who use the system to see.

The ‘management information system’ is the most widely used in UK schools and claims to be installed at ‘19,000 schools, with a million users from over 40 countries’.

Conservative MP Mark Jenkinson, who sits on the women and equalities committee, said last night: ‘This nonsense has to stop. The further we allow people to go down this gender-nonsense rabbit hole, the more damaging it becomes.’ It comes just days after a damning report revealed that parents are being kept in the dark over their children’s gender preferences.

Researchers asked 304 secondary schools in England what their policies were on children who identify as the opposite sex. Of the 154 to reply, only 39 said they would inform parents as soon as a pupil expressed the wish to change gender, while 87 said they would not.

Caroline Ffiske, from Conservatives for Women, said: ‘For schools, we urgently need the now long-promised new government guidance on these issues. But the private sector also needs to ask itself – will it defend science, reason, free speech, or continue to bow to harmful ideology?’

Heather Binning, of the Women’s Rights Network, added: ‘This is a serious risk to safeguarding. It usurps parental authority and responsibility.’

ParentPay, the parent company of ESS SIMS, said: ‘A significant number of schools told us they wanted more flexibility in how pronouns can be recorded for pupils and staff, and we have updated the software.’