Primary pupils allowed to pick their gender
PRIMARY school teachers are being told to allow children to change gender without informing their parents despite government guidance to the contrary, the biggest survey of its kind shows.
An analysis of more than 600 school equality and trans policies reveals that up to three-quarters misrepresent laws protecting sex and gender, with some implementing rules such as letting boys use girls’ toilets and changing rooms if they say they are a girl.
One trust, which includes a number of Church of England primary schools, has even advised teachers to assist girls using breast binders while on school trips and allow students to sleep in bedrooms which match their “gender identity”. The policies remain in place despite long-awaited draft government guidance published in December which states that schools should not accept all requests for social transition and should involve parents in any decision that is made.
Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, has told Parliament that teachers should be cautious about any request to change gender and “parents should not be excluded from decisions taken by a school or college relating to requests for a child to ‘socially transition’.”
The analysis of more than 600 mainstream state schools across Devon and Cornwall found that 73 per cent and 62 per cent respectively were incorrectly representing equality laws.
The dossier, compiled by Protect and Teach, a network of women concerned about gender ideology in schools and shared with The Telegraph, was undertaken in the regions after research showed that they had some of the highest rates of referral to gender identity services in the country.
It comes just days before the expected publication of the Cass review into gender identity services for
children, which has promised to consider the “important role of schools”. The interim report warned that changing a child’s name and pronouns is “not a neutral act”. Amid growing concern about the role of teachers in the increasing number of children wishing to change gender, The Telegraph can now reveal the extent to which controversial trans ideology has become embedded in policies.
A number of the school policies analysed state that children “as young as five” can show signs of gender dysphoria and that biological sex “is assigned at birth, depending on the appearance of the infant”. One leading grammar school defines sex as “a person’s understanding and experience of their own gender identity”.
The analysis shows that many of the school policies incorrectly represent the Equality Act, which lists nine char- acteristics which are protected from discrimination under law including sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment. The most common error was schools replacing the term “sex” with the term “gender”, which campaigners have warned dilutes protections including for single-sex spaces.
In response to the findings, MPS and campaigners called for the Government guidance to be made law so that schools “captured” by trans ideology could be forced to comply.
A DFE spokesman said: “Schools and colleges are expected to follow all guidance issued by the Government, whether it is statutory or not. Our guidance is clear that in nearly every case schools should not support the social transition of primary aged children, including not using pronouns that do not align with the child’s sex.”