The Equalities watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has updated its Technical Guidance for Schools (2014). The new guidance is a great improvement on the old — more in line with the Equality Act 2010 and with less ideological waffle. The passage, for example, “he or she starts or continues to dress, behave or live (full-time or part-time) according to the gender with which he or she identifies as a person” (whatever that means) has gone. It is replaced by a simple description of the protected characteristic Gender Reassignment from the Equality Act definition.

The old, woolly guidance on “segregation connected to gender” is replaced with clear guidance on schools’ legal duty to provide single-sex toilets and changing-rooms. The most significant change, however, is that section 3.35 from the 2014 guidance has been completely removed. Section 3.35 stated that not referring to a “previously female” pupil as a boy would result in direct Gender Reassignment discrimination.

This is the section that has caused the biggest problems in schools over the past decade: the surge in the social transition of children, often behind their parents’ backs. So much harm has been done by this one point.

It is a significant change as the government deliberates over the question of whether the protected characteristic of Gender Reassignment means that a ban on the social transition of children represents unlawful discrimination.

The confusion over whether children have the legal right to be “affirmed” in schools by their teachers and peers is larg