Teacher union opposes school gender plan

A TEACHING union will campaign against government plans to force schools to tell parents if their child changes gender.

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) agreed to oppose what teachers described as the “compulsory ‘outing’” of pupils to parents.

Teachers at the union’s annual conference in Bournemouth yesterday also said they would campaign against a ban on any aspect of “social transitioning” in schools, which could include allowing children to change their pronouns or use lavatories or changing facilities of the opposite sex.

The motion, approved by the majority of delegates at the conference, was drawn up in response to draft government guidance on gender-questioning children.

The long-awaited advice states that schools in England should not accept all requests for social transition and should involve parents in any decision that is made. Speaking in favour of the campaign against the guidance, Kathryn Barton, an NEU member, said she knew of a seven-year-old who had transitioned during the summer holiday and said that “not a single pupil” had a problem with it.

Ms Barton said: “They [the pupils] very easily changed his pronouns that they used to refer to him.”

She added: “This [government] guidance instructs schools to make parents aware if a child requests a name or pronoun, except in the very rare situation where informing parents might raise significant risk of harm to the child.

“It’s OK if it’s not a significant risk, that they are just going to be verbally abused. It’s absolutely absurd.”

Midge Lowe, a teacher from Doncaster, said the draft guidance was “regressive trash” and said teachers must campaign for it to be withdrawn.

She said: “This guidance, refusing to acknowledge the existence of trans children, is a risk, is harmful. Refusing to allow a cautious but early social transition is harmful and encourages risk-taking behaviour in later stages of life where it presents much greater harm.”

No delegates at the conference spoke against the motion, which also stated that “schools, colleges and external providers should not change or remove LGBT+ inclusive policies or curriculum content as ‘knee-jerk’ response to political rhetoric”.

It comes after revealed that primary school teachers are being told to allow children to change gender without informing their parents.

Responding to the NEU’s planned campaign, Tanya Carter, of Safe Schools Alliance, said: “We really are beyond appalled that the NEU thinks it has the authority to override basic safeguarding principles such as working together with parents.

A Department of Education spokesman said: “This is a clear violation of our draft guidance, which reflects the law and absolutely prioritises children’s safeguarding.”