UK: An all-girls Nottingham school has stated that it would no longer accept students who identify as transgender. The school's motto is, 'Progressive. Creative. Different.' Well not so much now, is it?
Discover our latest podcast
This move has been severely condemned by the local MP and the community. Read more to explore what's happening in our communities.
Hypocritical motto
The Girls' Day School Trust, which runs Nottingham Girls' High School, will only admit students based on their legal sex record, not their gender identity.
School mottos are set in place to divulge the values of what the institution stands for within their students, but that is quite the contrary in the case of Nottingham Girls' High School. The community argues that it's hypocritical and transphobic in nature.
The trust defends itself to state that they want to primarily cater to and protect its status as a single-sex girls' school.
Cheryl Giovannoni, Chief Executive Officer of the Girls' Day School Trust, tells ITV News Central that:
It is important to state first and foremost that the underlying principle of our policy is to offer a supportive educational environment to those students who are exploring their gender identity or in the process of transitioning.
Our trans students are welcome in our schools, and our policy primarily sets out ways in which schools can support them.
Local MP steps up
Nottingham East MP Nadia Whittome wholly condemns this event and told ITV News Central:
The trust is hiding behind the Equality Act as a reason for this policy not to admit transgender girls. What isn't so clear and what lawyers are concerned about is that in fact the trust's new policy is the one that could be unlawful.
Whittome added:
But the Equality Act itself is clear on this, there's a provision in it that allows single sex schools to maintain their single sex exemption while also admitting pupils of the opposite sex in exceptional circumstances.
