Tell us your three-year-old’s preferred gender when picking school, parents told

Parents have been told to declare their three-year-old’s preferred gender when registering them for a place at school.

More than 100 local authorities have been asking for the “gender identity” of primary school children in addition to their sex on admission forms, the Daily Mail has reported.

The forms asked parents to select whether their child is either “man/boy/male” or “woman/girl/female” or if they would “prefer to self-describe”.

Parents were then instructed to provide further details about the gender identity of their child.

The forms were understood to have been used by local authorities across the UK, including in London and the North of England. They were supplied by an external agency and used for more than 550,000 school place applications in 2021.

It is understood that only parents applying for a primary school place for the next academic year will be asked the above question following an update to the agency’s software.

‘Staggering and ridiculous’

One mother seeking a school place for her three-year-old son in Buckinghamshire shared the question online and said: “It has no place on the form with regard to three year-olds on any level.”

In response, Martin Tett, the Tory leader of Buckinghamshire council, said it was “totally inappropriate to ask this question of young children” and called for it to be removed.

He said: “This form was brought to my attention by a concerned parent. I immediately investigated as the council does not want or need a question about gender identity on our school admissions form.

“It was added by the software provider, not ourselves, and this form is also used by other councils. It is totally inappropriate to ask this question of young children and I have instructed that it be removed as swiftly as possible. Until then, parents are free to ignore this question – it is currently shown as optional on the form and ignoring it will not interrupt the important process of applying for their child’s school place.

“We have no need or desire to collect this information and apologise for any distress this may have caused for families encountering this question.”

Women’s rights campaigners also demanded local authorities axe the question.

Caroline Ffiske, from Conservatives for Women, told the Daily Mail: “It is staggering and ridiculous that we have reached the point where parents are being asked for their three-year-old’s gender identity.

“We must call out the public authorities who enable this, highlighting that they are actively promoting an ideology that results in irreversible harm for vulnerable children and adults.”

Speaking to the newspaper, Maya Forstater, the chief executive of the charity Sex Matters, added: “Little children of that age will have only recently begun to properly notice and understand the differences between girls and boys and women and men.

“Projecting the adult beliefs and concepts of trans activism onto children is not only ludicrous but also harmful.

“Many parents will have been shocked by this question and will be concerned about the nonsense that may be taught to their child at school based on the admissions form alone.”