By STEVEN BROWN
June 20, 2021
-Express
The charity is urging teachers to stop using all gendered language and gendered uniforms in a new series of guidance documents. They have also called for children to compete against the opposite sex in PE classes.
Their new guidance suggests uniform policies should “give the option to wear a skirt as well as the option to wear trousers”.
One of Stonewall’s guides said its work in primary schools was funded by the Government Equalities Office.
Stonewall also said staff should: “Avoid dividing learners by gender, whether in the classroom (you could divide them by their favourite colour, month of birth or something else) or through uniform, sports activities or other aspects of school life.”
Another piece of the guidance suggests trans pupils should be able to use the toilets, changing rooms, and dorms on school trips that they feel most comfortable in.
The guidance comes for members of the Stonewall School and College Champion schools.
According to reports, schools have to pay an annual fee of £150, plus VAT for establishments with less than 100 pupils.
Those who have more than 2,000 learners have to pay up to £800 plus VAT to be a member of the charity’s champion scheme.
St Paul’s, the private school in London, is reportedly among the hundreds of primary and secondary schools who are members, the Telegraph reported.
Under this champion scheme, champions are able to apply for Bronze, Silver or Gold awards to show how well they are following the “best practice”.
The guide tells schools that “it is unnecessary to say ‘boys and girls’ when referring to learners of all genders, you could instead say ‘learners'”.
Staff are told they should check their policies and get rid of any “unnecessarily gendered language” and instead of using the ‘he/she’ pronouns use ‘they’ instead.
Stonewall has urged primary schools to teach children to use ‘they/them’ as a pronoun.
Tanya Carter, a spokesman for the parents and teachers campaign group Safe Schools Alliance UK, said “It is shocking that cash-strapped schools are paying for misinformation from Stonewall that undermines basic safeguarding.”
She argued sport should be “separated by sex for reasons of safety and fairness”.
Ms Carter said: “Single-sex sports are important to girls for reasons of privacy and dignity.
“This is necessary to increase girls’ participation.
“Girls participation in sports is essential to both physical and mental health”.
Her comments come following a recent Ofsted report that found sexual harassment was prevalent in schools.
A spokesman for Stonewall defended their new guidance and said they are “very proud” of their work “supporting schools to create supportive and inclusive environments which help everyone feel accepted for who they are”.
They added that they are “confident that the advice that we give schools is robust” and “in line with the Department for Education’s guidance for schools in England, and the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s Equality Act Code of Practice”.
A government Equalities Office spokesperson said: “Six organisations were awarded funding to deliver programmes tackling anti-homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools across the country. The funding was a one-off payment for 2019-20.”