UK’s first transgender headteacher returns to work and hopes to be role model for trans students
Claire Birkenshaw, formerly Mike, received a positive response when she returned to Hull's Ashwell Academy after six months off
BRITAIN’S first transgender headteacher has returned to work and said she hopes to be a role model for trans pupils.
Claire Birkenshaw, formerly known as Mike, joked she may have given up being a man but could never give up Man United.
She said yesterday: “As one of my friends said, ‘Do you still support Man Utd?’ I said, ‘Well, everybody knows you can change your sex, but you can never change your football team’.”
Claire returned to Ashwell Academy in Hull this week after six months off.
She has been delighted by the positive response from staff and pupils who have had “trans awareness” classes ahead of her return.
Claire, 48, said: “In education, it doesn’t seem to be that there are many role models. So I can try to do things under the radar but how are people going to know? These children in schools need someone who is out there.”
Talking about her first day back, she said: “Straight away, one kid was ‘Hey Miss’. It was brilliant, there were no sniggers, it was just superb. It was a really nice morning.”
Claire, who had felt different from the age of four, revealed Education Secretary Justine Greening had written to support her, describing her openness as “absolutely fantastic”.
Ms Greening told her going public was “going to make a difference to so many people”. Claire said getting the letter was “utterly uplifting”.
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She told the Times Education Supplement: “I think what people find really difficult to understand is that the essence of me has never, ever changed.
“I still expect to be a headteacher. I still expect to be working with schools and ensuring children are making progress — but also that children are happy.”