Schools ‘will be ordered to tell parents’ if children start using a different gender identity and ‘bar them from opposite sex changing rooms’
Schools will have to tell parents if their children start using a different gender identity, under new guidance.
The government rules, due to be finalised in the coming weeks, are expected to state that family should be informed if pupils change names or uniform.
The guidelines are also set to urge a ban on self-declared trans students going in the opposite sex changing rooms. Instead there will be a recommendations that they are provided bespoke facilities where possible, according to the Sunday Times.
Rishi Sunak said he was ‘very concerned’ last month when claims emerged that schools are not routinely telling parents if their child has begun to question their gender.
The PM stressed it was important that parents ‘know what’s going on’, while Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was tasked with drawing up the new guidance.
Schools will have to tell parents if their children start using a different gender identity, under new guidance
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan (pictured) has been tasked with drawing up the new guidance
A report by the Policy Exchange think tank sparked alarm after finding that less than a third of parents are informed when a child expresses feelings of gender distress at school.
The research pointed to an emphasis being placed ‘on the wishes and innate feelings of a child above parental consent’.
It also discovered that ‘safeguarding principles are being routinely disregarded in many secondary schools’ over issues of sex and gender.
The non-statutory guidance will apply to all state and independent schools in England, aiming to provide more clarity about how teachers should handle gender identity issues.
It is set to recommend that a biological male who has ‘socially transitioned’ – adopting a female identity with pronouns and clothing – should not be allowed to join girls’ teams for certain contact and competitive school sports.
However, there is likely to be more relaxed advice when it comes to non-contact sports.
The guidance is expected to include an exception for cases where informing parents could expose children to risk of ‘significant harm’ at home.
While UK law allows adolescents in the UK to undergo some medical elements of transition, such as taking puberty blockers, they cannot formally change gender or undergo reassignment surgery until they are adults.
Rishi Sunak said he was ‘very concerned’ last month when claims emerged that schools are not routinely telling parents if their child has begun to question their gender
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