Schools told; consider social media influence if pupils ask to transition

Teachers should consider if students wanting to socially transition to another gender were "influenced by social media or peers", under new government guidelines for how schools and colleges in England deal with transgender children and young people.

- Richard Adams Aletha Adu

The draft guidance issued by the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, and the equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, advises that there is "no general duty" for schools and colleges to let students change their preferred names, pronouns or uniforms-known as social transitioning - and says parents should be involved in any decisions except where it would endanger the child.

The guidance requires schools to maintain separate toilets and changing facilities for each sex after age eight, allows staff and students to ignore pronouns preferred by socially transitioning children, and for sport and PE activities to be segregated by sex if there are safety concerns.

"Schools and colleges should seek to understand societal or other factors that may have influenced the child, for example: has the child been influenced by peers or social media? Does the child feel pressured to identify differently because they simply do not align with stereotypes associated with their sex?" it states.

The guidance is the first of its type to be issued to schools in England, and has been the subject of much controversy among government ministers and MPs since it was proposed by Rishi Sunak earlier this year.

The prime minister's spokesperson said schools would "be held to account" under the new guidance.