A number of UK’s top girls’ schools have decided not to accept transgender children because they fear it might ‘jeopardise” their single-sex status.
The Girls’ Day School Trust is a group of 23 private schools and 2 academies. It updated its guidance document on gender identity last month.
In a new section on admissions, the GDST said its schools do not accept applications from pupils who are legally biologically male, even if they identify as women.
According to them, a policy on ‘gender identification’ would be more important than the sex on a student’s birth certificate. This could ‘jeopardize the status of GDST school as single-sex schools under the 2010 Equality Act.
The document states that a student who is undergoing a transition should not be allowed to leave GDST schools while they are still at school.
The GDST is made up of institutions like the 137-year old Sutton High School in Greater London.
One group of UK’s most prestigious girls’ schools won’t accept transgender students because it could ‘jeopardise their’ status as single-sex institutions. According to reports, The Girls’ School Trust, which includes 23 private schools as well as two academies and has updated its guidance document on gender identity, last month.
Last night, however, the Association of School of College Leaders (ASCL), a teacher union, called for clarity from the Government regarding how schools should respond to transgender students.
Julie McCulloch of the Association of School and College Leaders told The Telegraph that as more children ‘come out’ as transgender, headteachers are forced to intervene in the controversial debate about sex and gender.
It is an important issue, and we worry about the lack formal guidance for schools.
Schools leaders claim that schools are dependent on lobbying groups for guidance because there is no national policy on transgender issues.
The GDST has added a section about admissions that states its schools will not admit pupils who are biologically male even if they identify themselves as female. The GDST counts many institutions, including the 137 year-old Sutton High School, as members.
The GDST’s guidelines were first published in 2016, and then updated by the GDST at December 1st last year.
Because of an exemption for biological sex, the body is unable to run a single-sex admissions program without violating the Equality Act. This has caused the body to be concerned.
‘The GDST believes that an admissions policy based on gender identity rather than the legal sex recorded on a student’s birth certificate would jeopardise the status of GDST schools as single-sex schools under the act,’ the guidance states.
GDST Schools do not accept legal male applicants.
“We will however continue to monitor and evaluate the legal interpretation of that exemption.”
One-sex schools are faced with a quandary if students apply based on their gender identity and not their biological sexual orientation.
Ms McCulloch indicated that this was a difficult problem for a headteacher.