THE Church’s National Society for education has released latest anti-bullying guidance for church schools, including revised advice on the way to support gender-questioning pupils.
The draft guidance, Flourishing for All, published on Friday, is informed by each the most recent government guidance on the problem and the ultimate report and proposals to NHS England from Dr Hilary Cass.
Pending a period of consultation and final approval, it’ll be rolled out to the C of E’s 4623 schools in September.
Flourishing for All replaces Valuing All God’s Children, first published in 2014 in response to research that suggested that homophobic bullying was on the rise in church schools (News, 16 May 2014). It was rewritten in 2017 and revised in 2019.
More recently, the document had been criticised by pressure groups who claimed that it endorsed gender transition in young children. The Church’s chief education officer, the Revd Nigel Genders, denied this, and its use of gender-affirming language (News, 4 November 2022).
NHS doctors stopped prescribing puberty-blocking hormones to young individuals with gender dysphoria on 1 April, referring to safety concerns. Ten days later, the independent review chaired by Dr Cass found that gender services for kids were steered by ideology relatively than “normal principles of paediatrics and mental health”.
In his introduction to the brand new guidance, Mr Genders is evident concerning the fast pace of change on the problems over the past decade. “The debate about human sexuality, and particularly gender, has regularly been toxic and polarised, which does nothing to assist the young people caught in the center and whose well-being must be our first priority.
“Over those ten years, terminology and understanding has evolved, and the actual and virtual world by which our kids and young people grow up has also transformed at an incredible rate.” He refers to developments in technology and social media, “where cyberbullying is having an alarming impact on the mental health of youngsters and young people”.
In his foreword, the Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Revd Jonathan Frost, who chairs the National Society and is lead bishop on education, writes: “Bullying has no place in our schools. Every child deserves to learn in an environment where they’re loved, supported, and revered.”
The 58-page document is split into two sections: first, an summary of key terms, types of bullying, duties of church schools, and general principles of a Christian approach; second, guidance for stopping and tackling homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic bullying in schools.
An accompanying note says that further sections are to be added “in the approaching months” to handle “bullying on the premise of protected characteristics, including race, special educational needs and disability, religion and belief, in addition to sexist bullying and sexual harassment”.
Part one states: “The start line for tackling all types of bullying is a welcoming and inclusive culture by which all pupils and adults feel a way of belonging.” Schools should recognise that some groups are more vulnerable than others, and that the elimination of bullying should “transcend compliance to deep compassion”.
Part two states: “Gender questioning children and transgender adults are at the very best risk of bullying and subsequently need particular pastoral support and protection.”
It goes on to say that: “Although there are different viewpoints on human sexuality and gender identity throughout the Church of England, in addition to in other faith communities and society at large, it isn’t acceptable for kids, young people or adults who’re LGBT+ to be bullied at college.”
Church schools, it continues, must challenge physical harm or sexual harassment; discriminatory and dehumanising language; repeated mis-naming which is deliberate and intended to cause harm; and cyberbullying towards “gender-questioning children, those that have already socially transitioned, and transgender adults”.
Also, “every effort” must be made by church schools to make “any alternative arrangements for gender-questioning pupils (resembling individual changing rooms, toilets and showers in class or sleeping arrangements on residential trips) . . . careful to not achieve this in a way that reinforces any sense of exclusion a pupil may feel by being singled out”.
Government guidance advises schools to undertake a period of “watchful waiting” after any request from a gender-questioning pupil.
Flourishing for All states: “If a college follows this path, it’s critical that the varsity proactively engages with the kid or young person so that they know they’ve been heard, and ensures that they’re kept protected from any harm or bullying behaviours by making planned and regular checks.
“They shouldn’t wait for bullying to be reported, but understand it is a particularly vulnerable time for that child or young person. Whenever possible, this could include working with the kid or young person’s family (unless to achieve this would place the kid or young person in danger).”
Both the brand new guidance and the Cass review were the topic of six of the 221 questions posed by General Synod members ahead of its five-day meeting, starting in York on Friday. The written answers were published on Thursday.
Bishop Frost responded to questions put to the National Society, including from members who were critical of the previous guidance, which he defends. “Valuing All God’s Children didn’t advise a specific approach to responding to gender questioning children,” he writes, “however the absence of presidency guidance on the topic [at the time] has led to some commentators assuming that was its purpose despite this never being the case.” Valuing All God’s Children could be replaced once the General Election had concluded.
Rebecca Hunt (Portsmouth) suggested that the issuing of recent guidance was partly a response to the case of Nigel and Sally Rowe, a Christian couple on the Isle of White who withdrew their six-year-old son from a C of E school in 2017, pending a legal review of the varsity’s decision to permit its pupils to decorate gender fluidly (News, 15 September 2017).
“The suggestion that gender is fluid conflicts sharply with our Christian beliefs as a family,” Mr Rowe said on the time. The school stated that a refusal to acknowledge transgender or gender-fluid pupils constituted “transphobic behaviour” and was not in one of the best interests of the kid. A judicial review is pending.
Ms Hunt asked whether the diocese of Portsmouth could be apologising for its response.
Bishop Frost said: “We are issuing latest guidance, not for all the explanations suggested within the query, but actually following government draft guidance” and the Cass review, which, he identified, “says that the toxicity of the controversy is outstanding and results in among the worst bullying behaviour”.
