The incident has been cited as an example of schools that are falling drastically short in the support they provide for transgender children.
However, at the same time, other schools are doing “fantastic” and ”outstanding” work in this area, MPs have reported.
The “uneven” situation has been outlined in Transgender Equality, a wide-ranging report published by the House of Commons’ Women and Equalities Select Committee.
The report makes a series of recommendations across all areas of government, including education – emphasising the duties of schools under the Equality Act.
Above all, the MPs have called for better school support for gender-variant young people and their families (the term “gender variance” is used often in respect of children or adolescents to refer to behaviour and interests that are outside what is considered “normal” for a person’s assigned (biological) sex).
Teacher training and the inclusion of trans issues within PSHE are also key topics within the MPs’ report.
Evidence to the committee from the Equality and Human Rights Commission shows that 91 per cent of trans boys and 66 per cent of trans girls experience “harassment or bullying” at school. This can often lead to depression, isolation and “a desire to leave education as early as possible”. The report states: “This is a higher rate of discrimination than that faced by young lesbian and gay students. This poor treatment at school has a knock-on effect on their mental health, attendance and ability to learn.”
The picture of school support for trans children is “uneven”, the report finds, with some “fantastic and outstanding” schools, but with too many that “fell short”.
Susie Green, the chair of Mermaids – a support group for children and young people with gender dysphoria and their families – recounted one story to MPs from her organisation’s work.
“We have had an incident where a child turned up after transitioning over school holidays and the school refused to allow the child entry to the building and insisted on saying that the name and the gender on the birth certificate was the one that was legal and, therefore, they could not and would not respect their gender choices or their name change choices.”
Ms Green told MPs that there was a lack of basic understanding among education professionals of gender-variance. She called for staff training around gender identity to be widely available, mandatory and included during teacher training.
Other problems MPs heard about included uncertainty in schools when it comes to recording a change of name and gender, tackling bullying, including trans pupils in sport, and with regards to access to toilets.
The report points schools to Department for Education (DfE) guidance on the Equality Act, which includes a section on gender reassignment. Under the Equality Act, it is unlawful for schools to treat pupils less favourably on grounds of gender reassignment. Indeed, the Act’s protection of pupils against discrimination on grounds of gender reassignment now matches the protection in relation to sexual orientation.
In their recommendations, the MPs have asked the DfE, as part of its on-going review of initial teacher training, to consider the inclusion of training on protected characteristics for new teachers.
The report states: “More needs to be done to ensure that gender-variant young people and their families get sufficient support at school. Schools must understand their responsibilities under the Equality Act. They must abide by their legal responsibility to ensure that all staff receive sufficient training to ensure they are compliant across all protected characteristics, including that which relates to trans people, especially gender-variant young people.”
The MPs have also urged schools to include trans issues within PSHE lessons, although they stopped short of calling for PSHE to be made a statutory curriculum subject – as a number of witnesses to the inquiry called for.
To download the report, go to http://bit.ly/1Srj5I6. For the DfE Equality Act guidance, see http://bit.ly/1KlZAck