Teacher sacked by CofE school after refusing to teach ‘extreme’ LGBT lessons

Church trust insists it follows official guidelines 'to promote British values' after dismissal of Glawdys Leger

ByLouisa Clarence-Smith, EDUCATION EDITOR8 October 2023 • 2:49pm

Glawdys Leger has been sent a letter stating that her alleged conduct 'was contrary to fundamental British values'

A Christian teacher faces losing her career after refusing to teach “extreme LGBT ideology” at a Church of England secondary school.

Glawdys Leger, 43, was a modern foreign languages teacher for 12 years before she was sacked by Bishop Justus CofE School in Bromley, south London, last year.

She claims that she was “treated like a dangerous criminal” for refusing to teach “extreme and politically partisan” LGBT lessons which had been incorporated into religious education lessons given to Year 7 and 8 pupils at the school.

She says she also expressed her beliefs to pupils during a discussion on LGBT issues that God believes humans are born male and female and that being LGBT is sinful.

The Aquinas Church of England Education Trust subsequently reported Ms Leger to the Teaching Regulation Agency after she allegedly upset one pupil by sharing her views on LGBT issues and went on to share more views during the trust’s investigation and subsequent hearings. In its referral to the agency, the trust said it was “not certain whether she would continue to share those views with young people”.

Pansexual, asexual and intersex

Ms Leger, who is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, claims that materials for RE lessons, which she also taught, entitled “Who Am I” included introducing children in Year 7 and 8 – aged 11 to 13 – to identities such as pansexual, asexual, and transgender.

Presentation slides integrated the idea that a condition of friendship and “allyship” at the school would involve defending and promoting any “protected characteristics”, including any gender identities, she says.

However, Ms Leger argues that gender identity is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, which makes such teaching misleading and partisan.

Ms Leger says she believed that parents who thought they were sending their children to a Christian school were being deceived. She claims that she decided that she would teach the Christian view on LGBT topics as students were getting only a one-sided narrative.

During lesson discussions on LGBT issues, she says she explained that she did not believe in transgender ideology, that Christians believe sex outside of marriage is sin and that as a Christian you need to “live your life for God”.

One parent complained to the school, alleging that Ms Leger had said that being “LGBTQ+ is a sin”, “God will love you if you are not LGBTQ+”, “people will always be seen by God as having their birth gender” and “transgender people are ‘just confused’”.

‘Contrary to my faith’

Ms...