Schools are back but teachers are still waiting for the government’s guidance on transgender pupils. Back in March, Rishi Sunak promised that it would be in our hands ‘for the summer term’. Well it’s now autumn and another round of teacher training days – and the summer holidays – have come and gone, and still we are no nearer to any answers.

In the mean time, teachers and trans pupils remain in limbo. They are not alone: doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital have reportedly been advised to ‘stop using gendered language’ such as boy or girl. Without any clear line from the government on this issue, it’s no wonder confusing advice like this emerges.

We’ve also learned this morning that Rishi Sunak is reportedly set to block plans that would have prevented schoolkids from transitioning, according to the Times. In the absence of any proper updated guidance, teachers are forced to look for such snippets in the newspapers – and even resort to more desperate measures in the quest for answers. Headteachers who turned to Google for advice on ‘transgender training for teachers’ will have been met with information from the usual suspects: Proud Trust, Mermaids, the National Education Union, Gendered Intelligence and Stonewall UK. I wouldn’t trust any of them.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital have reportedly been advised to ‘stop using gendered language’ such as boy or girl

The Proud Trust launches into pseudoscience on its website. ‘We also have a gender identity’, the organisation tells youngsters who come looking for information. No, we don’t. But this is a world of make-believe where children who are questioning are told to ask themselves questions like, ‘Do I feel comfortable with the gender I was assigned at birth? Would I be happier if people referred to me as a different gender? Does being a boy/girl feel right to me?’ And, most worryingly, told that, ‘there is no age limit for doing these things’.

Gendered Intelligence, meanwhile, is the organisation that produced the egregious Trans Youth Sexual Health Booklet that under ‘Sex 101’, insisted that ‘your identities [sic] paramount’, adding that, ‘A woman is still a woman, even if she enjoys getting blow jobs. A man is still a man, even if he likes getting penetrated vaginally.’

In this context, the continuing silence from government is unforgivable. The irony is that good advice isn’t hard to come by. We have known the difference between the sexes since the dawn of humanity, and we know that sex matters. Good policy needs to be grounded in this truth. Quite simply, schools must be honest about sex, and – equally importantly – uphold the right to be honest. It is totally wrong, therefore to discipline children or teachers who refer to other people by sex-based pronouns. But schools should not be supporting the social transition of children in any case. As the Cass Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People observed, ‘it is important to acknowledge that it is not a neutral act, and better information is needed about outcomes.’

None of this need stop schools supporting freedom of expression. If a girl can wear trousers, why can’t a boy wear a skirt? Clothes are just clothes, after all. The problem occurs when we require children to take on new identities in order to wear the clothes in which they feel comfortable. Nor do we need to police every playground conversation. Children can refer to each other by nicknames, or indeed by different pronouns. Informal relationships between peers, however, are not the same as the more formal relationship between children and their teachers.

The problem, of course is whether this would stand up in court. Government guidance that upheld biology and reality might well be vulnerable to a legal challenge from organisations that prioritise feelings and fantasy. But, as Miriam Cates told The Spectator, ‘We need to have this argument in public. That means risking a legal battle in order to win a long-term victory for common sense and safeguarding.’ The Tory MP – and former science teacher – added:

‘This is urgent and important. The safeguarding of children is paramount. If the law finds against the government, then the law needs to be improved. Schools should not be in the business of adhering to unevidenced ideologies that harm children. That is the message the Conservative party can take to the electorate.’

It’s a strategy unlikely to be adopted by a Labour party that continues to churn out nonsense when asked to define the word ‘woman’. Earlier this week, Sadiq Khan told Piers Morgan that ‘a woman when it comes to biology and sex is an adult girl but there are some women who may have gender dysphoria and transwomen can be women as well’.

As things stand, the cards are stacked against the Tories. But if it becomes an electoral choice between the safeguarding of children on one hand and ideological gibberish on the other, then there may be a narrow path to victory. But that needs to start with schools transgender guidance that upholds the interests of all children.