A male teacher at a Church of England primary school in Lancashire is to return next year as a female because he is “transitioning to live as a woman”.
One ten-year-old boy at the school is worried that he “might wake up with a girl’s brain” because that is what he has been told about his teacher.
Nathan Upton, the teacher involved, is to come back to St Mary Magdalen’s Primary School in Accrington next year as Miss Lucy Meadows.
Punished
One parent said his son had been told he would be punished if he continued to refer to the teacher as “Mr Upton” next term.
The school denied this, but said school children would be “expected to behave properly around her”.
Parents were informed about the change by a school letter which said: “Mr Upton has recently made a significant change in his life and will be transitioning to live as a woman”.
“After the Christmas break, she will return to work as Miss Meadows”, it said.
Inappropriate
But Wayne Cowie, whose ten-year-old son has been taught by Mr Upton for three years, said: “My middle boy thinks that he might wake up with a girl’s brain because he was told that Mr Upton, as he got older, got a girl’s brains”.
Mr Cowie added: “He’s a great teacher, but my kids are too young to be told about the birds and the bees like this.”
Another parent described the situation as “totally inappropriate”, and commented: “Any teacher who is going to change gender should also change schools.”
And a ten-year-old pupil said: “He spoke to us and said he’s going to be changing into a woman and wearing women’s clothes after Christmas. We were all a bit shocked.”
Impact
Mr Upton, who is separated from his wife and has one child, is reportedly living as a woman before deciding to proceed with a full sex change.
Headmistress Karen Hardman said: “We understand that an issue such as this is bound to arouse interest for a short while.
“However, this is a personal matter for our staff member, who has our full support, and we are all working together to ensure it has the least impact on the smooth running of our school.”
