Dealing with a Nightmare Situation -- Teachers in English Schools and Trans/Gender Distressed/Gender Dysphoria Students

This paper discusses the responses of schools and teachers in England and some other developed countries to Trans children, that is, those who feel that their assigned sex at birth was not correct. These children may be defined as Trans, that is wanting to change their assigned sex, or in other ways, such as having gender distress or dysphoria, or not being cisnormative which is, accepting one's sex assigned at birth. Recent years have seen a steady increase in the numbers of school children concerned about their birth assigned sex, presenting numerous problems. These include areas such as toilet facilities, changing rooms, sports studied, clothing, names and the use of pronouns and how to allot sleeping accommodation on a school journey. Parents in many cases are very concerned over schools' reactions, which have included schools agreeing to allow social transitioning without informing parents, ignoring the safeguarding instructions to schools, that parents must be informed of physical or mental health issues a child discloses. In addition, parents and schools can be at odds, with how schools should respond. In England, teachers have been waiting for guidance from the DfE on this matter since 2018, but this was not produced for schools until the end of 2023 for consultation, leaving schools to make individual decisions on actions. Comparisons are made with how schools in other developed countries have responded to this challenge and a small group of teachers in England, were asked to express their personal views on this subject and how it had affected their role in school. [For the complete Volume 22 proceedings, see ED656158.]