Gender guidance for English primary schoolchildren permits use of different pronouns

DfE guidance urges teachers to respond to social transition requests ‘with caution’ and includes Cass report findings

Primary school-age children who question their gender could be allowed to use different pronouns under long-awaited government guidance to schools on the subject.

The guidance, billed as moving away from a culture-war approach on the subject, has some changes compared with draft guidance produced in 2023, under the Conservatives, which said that primary-aged children “should not have different pronouns to their sex-based pronouns used about them”.

The guidance sets out that school staff members should not adopt changes like a new name or different pronouns unilaterally, and that this should be agreed by the school or college based on proper procedures, including parental involvement and clinical advice.

It does, however, stress the need for caution on social transitioning for younger children, setting out that this is expected to happen very rarely in primary schools.

A Department for Education (DfE) statement, released before the full guidance, set out that it includes the findings of the 2024 review into gender transitioning and children led by Dr Hilary Cass. It also follows last year’s supreme court ruling about gender, setting out the necessity for single sex spaces.

The guidance will be statutory, meaning schools have to abide by it. It has been welcomed already by some education union leaders, while Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, said the aim was to provide pragmatic advice and not use the issue as a “political football”.

According to the DfE statement, teachers will be expected to respond to social transition requests “with caution”, but children’s wellbeing should be paramount and there is thus a need for flexibility.

Parents should be notified about such requests, unless there is a particular safeguarding risk, and schools should seek clinical advice where possible, it says.

The advice, which will be reviewed annually, says schools should not have mixed toilet facilities or mixed sleeping arrangements on trips beyond the age of eight, and “no child should be made to feel unsafe through inappropriate mixed sex sport”.

In a statement released by the DfE, Phillipson 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.

“That’s why we’re following the evidence, including Dr Hilary Cass’s expert review, to give teachers the clarity they need to ensure the safeguarding and wellbeing of gender questioning children and young people.

“This is about pragmatic support for teachers, reassurance for parents and, above all, the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.”

Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that in the absence of guidance, schools and colleges had found there own solutions “amid an often polarised public debate”.

He said: “We have long called for clear, pragmatic and well-evidenced national guidance to support them in this area and we are pleased to have reached this point.”

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “We welcome the publication of this guidance for consultation, as there is a clear need for greater clarity about how schools should manage this sensitive issue and support their pupils.”