New school asking for "gender identity" etc. is this still allowed?

[ReallyIsThisStillGoingOn]

I know I could trawl through the DforE guidance but I'm short on time and wondered if anyone can advise? Just filled in the application form for child's new school (from Sept 2026) and wondered if they can still legitimately ask these questions (see screenshot) or whether this counts as affirming, which I believe is no longer allowed?

Apart from "gender assigned at birth" being irritating, nonsensical bullshit, I'm also thinking of my child's younger, less "gender stereotype conforming" sibling who may go to this school in a couple of years. If the school is not actually supposed to be using these terms now, I will write to them and push back on it. Thanks.

@FrippEnos this is not to be pedantic, but there must be a better word than effeminate to describe boys.

I know what you mean but at the same time, describing a boy’s behaviour as ‘feminine’ surely does fall into the gender trap of ascribing to a stereotype. A girlie-girl, a roughty toughty boy vs a tomboy or an effeminate boy. But admittedly it’s hard to break away from both the thinking and language.

And interesting just how powerful language has been in this particular battle between the genderists and sex realists. The genderists have long known the importance of assigning names and labels as well as removing them. Initially under the pretence of inclusivity. Now a naked power grab. Fresh admiration for Orwell and his surgical precision in exposing how language forces people’s thinking to change. This is where I see the power of GenAI.

This is very very different though from a poorly worded form that only the parents see.

I agree and it shows that there is more work to to get away from stereotypes.

Agree. Why does there need to be a another special word to describe him? The word boy is a large enough umbrella to cover every possible taste, preference and appearance from beefy rugby player to wafer thin catwalk model. It is people stamping their feet and demanding their own special words that has pushed us into this ridiculous situation where everyday language has been mangled and weaponised to accommodate whims and fancies.

It is not that the form will only be seen by the parents ( and the school admin ) it is the fact that the wording on the form is the result of woolly thinking from the school leaders, which is indicative of a deeper level of ignorance about the dangers of encouraging young children to believe all sorts of woo.

If we don’t look out for, spot and challenge the visible evidence of the thinking behind organisations who don’t understand basic facts about biology, and don’t understand how language affects perception and thinking, then we are allowing them to blur understanding and knowledge. The form , and others like it, might be an innocent mistake from someone whose doesn’t understand how the difference between gender and sex is being used to confuse, or it might be a deliberate attempt to continue to smudge the difference so that young people become as confused as the young people on the reddit site whose ignorance about their bodies has been confounded by misleading assertions written down as facts.

It’s an interesting conundrum.

Most recent SHRE consultation - don’t teach GI as fact. Plastered all over the press last year.

School enrolment - What is your GI?

Please question, if you think you can - it will help those of us in school admin who are trying to push back!

As a parent, I would say something simple like "on my child's passport / birth certificate, it refers to "sex". Is there a reason you're not asking that? Does your form refer to a different document?? Seems very confusing for parents with English as a second language". Make them explain.
I've done this before, when gender popped up on a form asking for passport details prior to an overseas school trip - it caused a right ruckus, and eventually the school realised that they needed to ask about sex because they were asking for information as it appears on the passport, and allocating hotel bedrooms. Duh.

THIS!

Extracting these fantastical beliefs from our institutions will take ages. That's why it's so important that parents find our courage and speak up. If it helps, the draft Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE), shortly to be ratified as the consultation has now closed, makes a number of demands of schools to record a child's sex accurately.
If a school fails to record sex then they won't be able to ensure single sex sports that ensure safety of girls (para 95) single sex accommodation in dormitories for boarding schools ( para 192), single sex toilets (para 106) and changing rooms "Schools and colleges must not allow a child, aged 11 years or older at the start of the school year, to undress in front of a child of the opposite biological sex, to comply with their safeguarding duties" (para 112).
This is why the Good Law Project and other trans lobby groups are howling in outrage at the notion of child safeguarding being restored in schools.

Safeguarding guidance is statutory - it's a must do, not negotiable. That puts parents in a powerful position if they wish to challenge a school undermining safeguarding and presumably will enable a referral to Ofsted for significant safegiuarding breaches once the final version of KCSIE is published.

If it helps, this is a link to the draft safeguarding guidelines so you can see the specific paras I've quoted above.
Obviously they're not statutory yet but no matter how trans captured this government has been, I just can't see them reverse ferreting and suddenly deciding that men and boys can share changing rooms, dormitories etc with girls in schools.

https://consult.education.gov.uk/independent-education-and-school-safeguarding-division/keeping-children-safe-in-education-2026-revisions/supporting_documents/keeping_children_safe_in_education_2026_draft_for_consultationpdf-1

The purpose of the form (or one of them) is to capture data for national analysis. Since 2023 (I think) this is supposed to record the children’s sex and not their gender (as sex is a protected characteristic and gender isn’t). It’s not simply a matter of a poorly worded form, it’s the school failing to meet its obligations around data collection.