School guidance to say those who 'misgender' shouldn't face sanction
Trans guidance for schools puts parents first as ministers to say teachers and students who ‘misgender’ a pupil should not face any sanction
- The Department for Education is set to publish the new guidance on Tuesday
- It will call for a ‘presumption against’ allowing children to change genders
- Parents will be informed at the first opportunity under new laws
Teachers and students who ‘misgender’ a trans pupil should not face any sanction, ministers will say today.
Long-awaited guidance from the Department for Education, to be published on Tuesday, will call for a ‘presumption against’ allowing children to change gender at school.
This overturns the situation in classrooms across the country.
A new ‘parents first’ approach will advise that in all but the most exceptional cases, they should be informed at the first opportunity if their child asks to be known as having a different gender at school.
Teachers and pupils should not be pressured to adopt a child’s chosen pronouns and should not be punished if they get them wrong.
Gillian Keegan (pictured) head up the Department for Education, which will call for a ‘presumption against’ allowing children to change gender at school.
Maya Forstater, of the campaign group Sex Matters, (pictured) said: ‘After years in which the trans lobby has dictated practice in too many schools, parents will be able to use this guidance to demand a return to sanity in the classroom.’
And schools will be told to protect single-sex spaces, like toilets and changing rooms, and to keep boys out of girls’ sport.
The guidance has been delayed by government infighting for months and stops short of the total ban on social transitioning at school favoured by some Tory MPs.
But last night Maya Forstater, of the campaign group Sex Matters, said: ‘After years in which the trans lobby has dictated practice in too many schools, parents will be able to use this guidance to demand a return to sanity in the classroom.’
An official source said: ‘This Government firmly believes parents should be involved in decisions about their children and much more caution should be taken, so this guidance means there should effectively now be a presumption against social transitioning in schools.
‘Alongside this we’re giving much-needed certainty and protection to teachers and pupils so they will no longer feel forced to use different pronouns for gender-questioning children, and won’t face a sanction for not doing so.
‘It is a complex and sensitive issue but we’ve taken the time to strike the right balance.’ Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden hinted at the new approach at the weekend, saying it was important to adopt an ‘appropriate scepticism about social transitioning whilst of course respecting children in that situation’.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden (pictured) hinted at the new approach at the weekend
Maths teacher Joshua Sutcliffe (pictured) was banned from the profession this year after misgendering a trans pupil and sharing his Christian beliefs in the classroom
School leaders have been calling for guidance for months to clear up what one called ‘a public minefield of strongly held and opposing views’.
Ministers have been alarmed by the approach taken by some schools in pandering to pupils who claim to have changed gender.
Maths teacher Joshua Sutcliffe was banned from the profession this year after misgendering a trans pupil and sharing his Christian beliefs in the classroom.
Today’s guidance is likely to disappoint Tory MPs who wanted a total school ban on social transitioning – when boys adopt girls’ names, pronouns, uniforms and hairstyles, and vice versa.
Rishi Sunak was said to have been sympathetic to such calls but the legal advice was that this would need a rewriting of the Equality Act.
It comes as couples getting married will be asked if they want to be called ‘husband and wife’ under woke church guidelines.
It is part of new ‘inclusive language’ advice published by the Methodist Church. Old-fashioned terminology ‘makes assumptions about a family or personal life that is not the reality for many people’, it warns.
The guide advises ministers to use gender-neutral language such as ‘folks’ to avoid ‘subconsciously using phrases that may be misinterpreted as us favouring one sex over another’.
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