Teachers need help in the transgender debate

Which toilet should a trans pupil be allowed to use? Teachers like me have enough on our plates with the day job, but we must also face questions like this. Whatever our answer, we are bound to annoy someone. Yet for too long, ministers have shied away from offering a helping hand in this toxic debate. Unfortunately, it looks as though Liz Truss’s government is going to continue that unhelpful approach.

Schools are in desperate need of clear guidance for helping include transgender pupils without compromising the rights of others. Activist groups have held sway for too long, and – as a teacher – it was a relief to hear the Department for Education had called on both the Equality and Human Rights Commission and doctors to produce an ‘evidence-based guide’. But listening to some of the language emanating from the Government, another failure of leadership appears to be on the cards. 

Kit Malthouse, the latest in a long line of education secretaries, is said to be looking for a ‘common-sense approach’.