Halcyon London International School head Barry Mansfield said school sport should be about inclusion
(Picture: Halcyon international school Facebook)Transgender schoolchildren should be allowed to choose whether they play sport on the boys’ or girls’ team, the head of a London school has said.
Barry Mansfield, director of the £30,000-a year-Halcyon London International School in Marylebone, said there is no safety issue with trans students playing on the team they feel most comfortable on.
He also said they should be able to choose which lavatories to use, and has introduced gender neutral facilities.
His comments contradict Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi who has suggested transgender pupils should play sport with people of the same biological sex.
The department for education is drawing up guidance to help schools grapple with questions over which teams transgender children should be part of, and which toilets, changing facilities, uniforms they use. Mr Zahawi is working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on the new guidance as teachers deal with growing numbers of students identifying as the opposite sex, or non-binary.
Mr Zahawi has suggested that trans children should be able to wear the uniform they want but that in school sport there needs to be clear delineation. He told one newspaper: “In sport biology comes first. If you are biologically stronger you should compete with people who are biologically equal.”
But Mr Mansfield said schools should not need guidance from the department for education on this question.
He said: “School sports are not professional sports, and there’s nuance and very real difficulty in that debate. But this is school, and sport is about inclusion, building different skills and enjoying a different challenge to that of the classroom, and keeping healthy and fit.”
He added: “Schools are full of smart people, who already have to manage sensitive participation as students do not all grow at the same pace. There is no safety issue.
“There’s a bigger point here, though, which is that if a student wishes to be accepted, and presents and identifies in a particular way, then having a school leader forcing them to play sports for the other team, that student will be ashamed, and will disengage rather than face the turmoil.
“They will be less healthy, less fit and less happy, and they will have less trust in the adults around them. On what basis are we to say to a vulnerable 14-year-old that they can’t play basketball on their team? Where is the harm in allowing them to play?”
However a spokeswoman for Fair Play for Women said: “Letting males play in girls’ events is not inclusive. It makes school sport unfair and unsafe for girls. Going through male puberty gives huge advantages. It doesn’t matter how they identify, in sport it’s the sexed body that matters. That’s why single-sex sport is the norm from age 12. It’s how we make sure girls can be included in sport.
“We know that trans inclusion leads to female exclusion. We know that teenage girls drop out of sport at three times the rate teenage boys do.
“Of course school sport should be inclusive but that can’t be at the expense of girls.”
