School leaders have described advice from the attorney general to “take a much firmer line” with pupils who identify as transgender as “unhelpful” and potentially damaging to children’s mental health.
In an interview last week, Suella Braverman said schools in England do not have to accommodate pupils who want to change gender, and are under no legal obligation to address them by a new pronoun or let them wear a different uniform.
Headteachers, however, who are increasingly having to navigate their way through these issues, fear that not listening to young people “would risk damaging mental health” at a time when pupils have already suffered during the pandemic.
