EXCLUSIVEFury as councils ask parents what gender ID is used by their three-year-old child on school application form

Parents are being asked how their three-year-old children identify to register them for a place at school.

Local authority admissions forms ask what ‘gender identity’ primary school aged children have in addition to their sex.

The form asks parents whether their children are ‘man/boy/male’, ‘woman/girl/female’ or whether they would ‘prefer to self describe’.

They are then encouraged to give a more detailed description of the ‘gender identity’ of their child, who would be aged under five if registering for a place at a primary school.

The software comes from an external provider and is used by more than 100 local authorities across the UK, including by councils in London and the North of England, it is understood.

More than 550,000 school place applications were made using the software in 2021. However only parents applying for a primary school place for their children for the next academic year will be confronted by the question after it was recently updated, it is further understood.

Local authority admissions forms ask what ‘ gender identity’ primary school aged children have in addition to their sex (file image)

The form asks parents whether their children are ‘man/boy/male’, ‘woman/girl/female’ or whether they would ‘prefer to self describe’ (file image)

One Buckinghamshire mother who was applying for a school place for her three-year-old son shared the question online and said: ‘It has no place on the form with regard to three-year-olds on any level.’

She further noted that parents were not asked about potential allergies or other health or behavioural information that may be useful to schools.

Last night Martin Tett, the head of Buckinghamshire Council, admitted that it was ‘totally inappropriate to ask this question of young’ and said he has asked for it to be removed as ‘swiftly as possible’.

His call was echoed by women’s rights campaigners who demanded that local authorities immediately ‘ditch these questions or ditch the software’.

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

Buckinghamshire Council leader Martin Tett

‘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.’

Meanwhile Maya Forstater, chief executive of human-rights charity Sex Matters, also demanded that the ‘completely inappropriate question’ be scrapped.

She said: ‘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 transactivism 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.’

Buckinghamshire Council leader Mr Tett said: ‘This form was brought to my attention on Wednesday evening 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 is 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.’