All girls' school - safeguarding and boys issue

[wejammin]

My daughter has just started year 7 at a girls academy school. It appears (although this is only what she has told me and what I have seen for myself) that there are at least 2 boys attending who identify as girls. When I say I have seen it - one of the boys is visibly male.

The school's equality policy says "the school may exercise discretion in allowing admission of both male and female transgender students and supporting transgender students at any stage of their education at the school." I admit I hadn't read this until this week.

Given it's a girls school, I'm worried about safeguarding re sports, changing rooms, toilets and residential trips. I have an older teen boy - I know how big, and strong, they get, and how hormones kick in. I presume there are no boys toilets or changing rooms, but I don't know for sure. There are definitely no boys sports clubs.

Does anyone know the best way to approach this with school so that it is taken seriously? I mean no ill-will towards the male children. I just want my daughter to be safe.

What metric makes Boy Bs wants/needs differ to the wants/needs of Boy A

Whatever it is, it’s not a difference based on sex. They are the same sex.

The school would have the burden of showing their claim to the single-sex exemption is valid. They’d have to show their admission of opposite-sex pupils is exceptional.

That would then turn on the facts. A school with loads of opposite-sex pupils that operated self-ID for admissions purposes might struggle. A school that says it “may exercise discretion” and has a very small number is going to find it easier to show that’s exceptional.

There will be other legislation that may offer a better way to challenge. I don’t think having boys in a girls school is a great idea. But if OP is going to challenge on the basis of EA 2010 it helps a lot to know what the law says. Saying ‘a single boy destroys the single-sex exemption’ (I know you haven’t said that) is not a strong line.

I agree whis is why I said the school must have a metric and has PC of GR is imo not enough.

In the OPs case she wants a no-boy school and her girl wants a no-boy school so a boy who wants a including-this-girl school is attempting to override DDs rights. Well the school is allowing this to happen by the admission policy.

The OP says these pupils are boys who identify as girls.

This is a fantastic latter (unsurpringly, given the experience of the writer).

I'd make one change though, and remove the last paragraph about making an official FoI request if it's not answered. Simply asking the questions is an official FoI request, so you don't need to do that separately. The school should deal with it as such.

It could only possibly be an issue if the school are failing to safeguard females.

send the email. If the school are doing their job they have an official answer for every point.

if they don’t have one then they have made a major safeguarding failure and your daughter is at actual risk.

you’re not a bad parent to check that things have been done properly.

that’s what great parents who care do.

Put your head above th parapet. Children need protecting.

Thank you and actually I agree on the FOI thing, it should be treated as such from the off by the school.

Well said.
It can't be said often enough that parents must challenge institutions who tell girls that they have no right to boundaries from the opposite sex, who teach children that sex change is desirable and who instruct that it's bigotry to ask questions.
The time for dismissing Cass, safeguarding and the law is over. The safety and wellbeing of children must be paramount. The demands that certain adults make that children's safety must be abandoned in favour of promoting this niche anti safeguarding notion that children can transition must be rejected.

Thank you all for your input, and especially @SingleSexSpacesInSchools for the draft letter. I have emailed the head of safeguarding this morning with a slightly amended version and I will update once I've had a response.

Brilliant, well done @wejammin and agree great advice from @SingleSexSpacesInSchools.

Honestly, I would draft something like this:

So, how do I take my kid out from your school?

Your clarity is admirable.

Yes, and I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't be ok for the school to allow only SOME boys to do this (only the ones who say they are girls) and not to allow any of the other boys (who don't say they are girls)

No reply from school yet....

Odd
Two days and nothing
You’d think all the info would be ready and freely available for parents

Perhaps they’ve realised they don’t have a risk assessment …just like nhs Fife 🥴

If you use the word FOI in the title they WILL respond that day to acknowledge receipt. I’d still do that… otherwise this will drag on for months.

They've acknowledged receipt - the admin team have confirmed it's been sent to the safeguarding lead. That was about 15 minutes after I sent it. Just no substantive response yet.

I'm sure you may think I am being heavy handed, it's just because I've been trying to move the needle at my local school for so long and have been stonewalled at every single turn. Your school may be different. I strongly suspect it is not.

If they have not given you a watertight timeframe, which you WOULD get from an email with FOI written on it, I am imagining they will give you the run around and not answer a load of your questions. If it's FOI, they can't. otherwise they can.

Anyway. Really do hope I am being over cautious!

If it's FOI, they can't. otherwise they can.

It is FoI. If you request information from a public body, that is an FoI reqest and must be dealt with as such.

You dont have to mention the regulations, or state it's one, or even write a formal letter. Every a question in a Tweet or on their Facebook page counts - any form of written question (about data or information it's reasonable for them.to hold, not their favourite biscuit) that gives them sufficient contact details for them to supply you with the answer is, automatically, an FoI request.

NRFT but well done for asking this question and I hope that you are getting some support for you OP. Sex Matters or Transgender Trend might be able to support or advise you because whatever response you get needs to be considered carefully. Take care.

I did not know that thank you, good that they are forced to follow the FOI regs regardless in that case. They can be so very slippery.

Update - I had a phone call with the deputy head. She said there are no biological boys in the school. I am not the only parent who has raised this so she isn't sure where it has come from. There are some girls with short hair, and some rumours seem to have started.
She was on board with my concerns and didn't think I was unreasonable in raising them, but it's a non-issue in reality.
So that is all very reassuring!
Thanks to all for the comments and discussion.

Good news that there are no males in the school and equally good news that the Head is on the same page as you. That bodes well if any males do try and join - all the Head needs to do is follow the law.

As a mum of a daughter with short hair it saddens me no end that we've got to the point (as a society) where people have taught themselves to wonder if girls with short hair are possibly boys - or might want to be and if so, that it's important to go along with this. In the case of my daughter, she was actively gender questioning previously and she saw her preference for short hair as an example of the "evidence" that she may not be a girl. We've been slowly unpicking this and I think she's now at the point where she can see that her preference for short hair (and for clothes from the boys' section) doesn't indicate she might be a boy.... We're not out of the woods though, not least because (most likely due in part to several girls like her having short hair) the school teaches children to support everyone's declared gender identity (and that to not do so is unkind) and people sometimes ask her what her pronouns are. Effectively they are asking "are you sure you're a girl? Would you prefer me not to think of you as one?"

It's possible that some of the girls with short hair at your daughter's school might be experiencing something similar to my daughter. Hopefully, for their sake, the Head recognises why it's important that these girls are not nudged towards wondering if they are really girls. But that's obviously a different risk/issue from the one that you to thought you were facing.

I don't understand why you think this isn't a strong line. It's the correct line. If a boy is in the school, it is no longer a girls' school.

You said in you OP that one of the pupils was visibly male. Do you think you were mistaken?

Because much as I agree that’s logical, it’s not what the law actually says. There are carve-outs for “exceptional” presence of opposite-sex students.