Labour opened the door on Thursday to primary school children changing their gender.
Long-awaited trans guidance for schools finally arrived, having been watered down from previous Tory proposals.
Instructions drawn up by now Tory leader Kemi Badenoch forbade primary schools from changing pupils’ pronouns. But the Government’s guidance has scrapped the ban, instead saying those as young as four should be allowed ‘full social transition’ to the opposite gender, albeit in ‘rare’ circumstances.
Other sections have been deleted, including edicts that secondary pupils should change their pronouns only on ‘very few occasions’, that no teacher or pupil should be compelled to use the new pronouns and that teachers should not be stopped from saying ‘boys and girls’.
On Thursday, campaigners said the guidance puts pupils at risk by encouraging the ‘dangerous fairytale’ that children changing gender is possible.
Tory education spokesman Laura Trott said: ‘Primary school children should not be navigating changes in pronouns at all. But shockingly Labour’s guidance opens the door to children as young as four being referred to in a way that does not reflect their biological sex.’
The Department for Education guidance on ‘gender-questioning children’, which is subject to consultation, will eventually be backed by law.
It has been backed by Dr Hilary Cass, who carried out the 2024 independent review of NHS gender identity services for children, which led to a ban on puberty blockers for under-18s.
Labour opened the door to primary school children changing their gender on Thursday. Long-awaited trans guidance for schools finally arrived, having been watered down from previous Tory proposals
The Department for Education guidance on ‘gender-questioning children’, which is subject to consultation, will eventually be backed by law
Instructions drawn up by now Tory leader Kemi Badenoch forbade primary schools from changing pupils’ pronouns
The guidance was originally drafted under the Tories in 2023, but when Labour came to power it was delayed for 18 months amid divisions in the party over the issue.
The previous text said: ‘Primary school aged children should not have different pronouns to their sex-based pronouns used about them.’
However, the new advice simply says ‘schools should be particularly conscious of safeguarding concerns relating to primary aged children’, and notes that those who transition this early are more likely to later have medical intervention.
It adds: ‘Primary schools should exercise particular caution, and we would expect support for full social transition to be agreed very rarely.’
Maya Forstater, the chief executive of Sex Matters, said: ‘Schools are still being left with the idea that they can facilitate “social transition” – which remains undefined – and that they should negotiate this on a case-by-case basis.
‘They are being encouraged to think that children have a “birth sex” as well as some other concept of sex. This has no basis in law or reality, and undermines safeguarding.
‘It should be clear by now that allowing children and parents to think that a child who starts their education as a girl can graduate as a boy or vice versa is a dangerous fairy tale.’
Stephanie Davies-Arai, the founder of Transgender Trend, which advocates for an evidence-based approach towards children, added: ‘No child should be compelled to call a boy “she” or a girl “he”. It is other children who are expected to socially transition a classmate by using their “preferred pronouns” and this is a wholly inappropriate demand of any child.’
In common with the draft version, the new document also says girls’ toilets and changing facilities must remain female-only. It says that if gender-questioning pupils do not want to use the facilities designed for their sex, they should be provided with an alternative.
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Tory education spokesman Laura Trott (sitting beside Badenoch) said: ‘Primary school children should not be navigating changes in pronouns at all’
‘But shockingly Labour’s guidance opens the door to children as young as four being referred to in a way that does not reflect their biological sex,’ Trott continued
In common with the draft version, the new document also says girls’ toilets and changing facilities must remain female-only
There should also be no mixed toilets for children over eight or mixed-sex sleeping arrangements on trips. A child’s birth sex must be recorded in school and college records, the guidance says.
Schools should seek parents’ views on a child’s request to change gender, as well as always considering any clinical advice families have received. No member of staff can decide by themselves to transition a child without agreeing it with the school and parents, and schools must not ‘initiate’ transition – they can only ‘respond’ to requests.
Meanwhile, additions to the guidance include a seemingly obvious note that it is ‘common’ for girls to play with trucks and boys to dress in ‘feminine’ clothes.
It adds: ‘Sometimes young children also go through a period of questioning their gender but for the majority this will not continue into adulthood.’
And it says sports should remain single-sex if there are safety concerns about accommodating transgender children.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, who has repeatedly delayed the guidance, said: ‘Parents send their children to school and college trusting that they’ll be protected. Teachers work tirelessly to keep them safe. That’s not negotiable, and it’s not a political football.’
The gender-questioning document will be embedded into the overall statutory Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance, which schools have to follow and is regularly reviewed.
