School inspectors have praised primary schools for labelling children as young as four ‘transgender’ because they want to dress up as the opposite sex.
A new Ofsted report commends schools where “transgender pupils are taken seriously” and “gender-neutral” environments are encouraged.
The education watchdog highlighted examples of good practice, such as appreciating “that a boy may prefer to be known as a girl and have a girl’s name and similarly a girl may have a girl’s name but wants to dress as and be a boy”.
Ludicrous
As part of the study, Ofsted visited 37 primary and 19 secondary schools and questioned 1,357 pupils.
According to the Daily Mail, one unnamed school encouraged children to behave in a “non-gender stereotypical way”, with younger boys dressing up in traditionally female clothing and allowed to wear ribbons in their hair.
The Daily Mail’s Steve Doughty, hit out at the report. He said it is the job of teachers to stop bullying, and always has been, but: “It is not the job of teachers to pick out which children belong to which sexual minority, and especially not at ludicrously young ages”.
Resilient
Last year homosexual lobby group Stonewall sent a teacher training pack to primary schools, which said young boys in primary schools should be encouraged to try on dresses or dance with pompoms in the cheerleading team.
An accompanying DVD, backed by the Training and Development Agency, features primary school teachers giving “best practice” tips from their own experience.
One head teacher on the DVD says pupils should be taught to be resilient to the values of their parents and grandparents.
Controversial
In February Edinburgh City Council announced it was considering controversial plans to stop primary school children lining up for class as boys and girls to stop “gender stereotyping”.
The Council said it was also considering stopping primary schools from separating boys and girls at school sports days.