Teachers call for more support to help transgender kids

Transgender children are not getting the support they need in schools, according to attendees at a recent teacher’s conference, and it’s because the structures and expertise required to help them do not exist.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) proposed a motion on the issue at their annual conference in Liverpool earlier this month.

“We are not addressing the issues effectively in many schools and colleges,” said Julia Neal, the deputy director of a sixth form in Devon. “I want to emphasise the need for specialist training for senior managers and governors. Leaders need to be prepared to guide staff and support young people.”

An ATL executive member Graham Easterlow told BuzzFeed that when a pupil at his all-boys school in North Yorkshire said he identified as female, the staff were totally unprepared to deal with the issue.

“We had no policy,” he said, “that’s what the motion is about. Schools and school leaders need to be future-proof. We need to be on the front foot, not the back foot.”

Another teacher said he had experienced “an explosion” of trans issues at schools and colleges, but had no training in how to deal with them.

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Dan, a transgender teacher from Newcastle who also spoke at the conference, said that that a framework for this issue was a necessary as any other which concerns a child’s welfare.

“If a child is struggling because they’re not getting enough food or sleep, there are clear support mechanisms in place,” he said. “But there’s nothing in place to support a child who’s having gender issues. Just a knee-jerk reaction.”

According to the charity Metro Youth Chances, 94% of LGBT young people said they had learned nothing about transgender issues in school. Their report also found that 83% of transgender young people have been bullied, 35% have suffered physical attacks, and 27% have attempted suicide.

Teachers who talk to their pupils about LGBT issues often face difficulties with parents, such as the primary school teacher in Hartfield who faced criticism last month after teaching the children about gender issues.

Many believe that a proper framework would support and guide them in doing this work, and crucially, get necessary information through to the pupils who need it.

However, the current Conservative government recently rejected calls to introduce statutory PSHE in schools, which would encompass transgender issues. Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Lucy Powell has said she wants this should be implemented.

Lucy Powell

Speaking on ITV’s The Agenda this week she lamented that our understanding of trans issues were decades behind our understanding of gay rights, and that trans people were the “poor relation” in the LGBT community.

“One of the things I’m very passionate about is we should be looking more closely at education in schools, and I meet young people who say to me they want more time in the school day, more time in the curriculum when it comes to things like LGBT issues.”

The government’s alternative to implementing statutory education has been to donate £3 million over the past 2 years to LGBT charities, aimed at tackling homophobic and transphobic bullying.

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