A toddler was suspended from nursery after being accused of being transphobic or homophobic, The Telegraph can reveal.
Department for Education (DfE) data show the child, aged either three or four, was suspended from a state school in the 2022-23 academic year for “abuse against sexual orientation and gender identity”.
The school and further details of the case were not disclosed.
But statistics show that 94 pupils at state primary schools were suspended or permanently excluded for transphobia and homophobia in 2022-23.
These included 10 pupils from year one and three from year two, where the maximum age is seven.
One of these included a child of nursery age, the data show.
‘Seems too crazy to believe’
It comes after The Telegraph revealed that children as young as five are being kicked out of schools for attacking their teachers or fellow pupils amid an alarming rise in ill-discipline in Britain’s schools.Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, said: “Every once in a while, the extremes of gender ideology throw up a story that seems too crazy to believe, and a toddler being suspended from nursery for so-called ‘transphobia’ or homophobia is one such example.
“Worse still, this is not an isolated case. Apparently 13 four and five-year-olds were suspended or permanently excluded from school for the same reason.
“Teachers and school leaders involved in this insanity should be ashamed of themselves for projecting adult concepts and beliefs onto such young children.
“It’s unforgivable for children’s vital early education to be so traumatically disrupted by school leaders who prioritise activists’ demands over their charges’ wellbeing.”
Across all state primary schools, the number of pupils suspended or expelled for homophobic or transphobic behaviour increased from 164 in 2021-22 to 178 in 2022-23.
The largest number of suspensions and exclusions for this reason in 2022-23 was in Essex (16), followed by Birmingham (15), Bradford (11) and Norfolk (eight).
The data has only been collected since the 2020-21 academic year, and students can be excluded for multiple reasons.
Lord Young, the director of the Free Speech Union, said: “It beggar’s belief that schools are suspending children as young as five for breaching their ‘transphobia’ policy. I would have thought that if your ideology is so rigid it justifies you punishing toddlers for not complying with it, that’s a powerful argument for discarding it in favour of something less dogmatic.”
The data also show the number of expulsions and suspensions has increased since the pandemic.
In the 2022-23 academic year, 787,221 pupils were suspended across England’s schools, more than double the number in 2016-17.
Of these, some 84,339 were primary school students, an increase of 31 per cent from 64,337.
Students facing permanent exclusions increased by 21 per cent to 9,377 in 2022-23, although the number of primary pupils excluded has fallen by 4.2 per cent over that period.
The trend does not appear to be slowing. The latest figures, for the 2023 autumn term, show suspensions for all reasons jumped by 41 per cent among primary school pupils while permanent exclusions increased by a third (35.2 per cent).
A DfE spokesman said: “All pupils and staff should feel safe and protected at school and should never face violence or abuse.
“The Education Secretary has been clear that she expects school leaders to enforce good behaviour and we are committed to a comprehensive programme of behaviour support for schools.
“Our Plan for Change sets out our relentless focus on making sure every child gets the best life chances, no matter their background, including establishing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, providing access to mental health support and making attendance one of the four core priorities of our school improvement teams.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/31/toddler-kicked-out-of-nursery-for-being-transphobic/ (Archive)
