Britain’s first transgender headteacher reveals her struggle feeling like an ‘impostor’ all her life
Brave Claire Birkenshaw recently returned from a sixth-month break from teaching, and is determined to be open about her transition
BRITAIN'S first transgender headteacher told yesterday how she spent most of her life 'faking' being a man.
Brave Claire Birkenshaw, 48, formerly known as Mike, has just returned to her desk after taking a six month break.
She now plans to be a role model for kids and told how she spent decades living as "an impostor".
Claire said: "I've had a lifetime of fear about being found out. It was an age where there was little knowledge about transgender.
"I learned to mask my true self and fit in as best as I could. However, maintaining something you are not is not an easy thing to do.
"Shame is a very powerful emotion, and the guilt, too. I constructed this picture to the world out of it."
She said she considered moving away from Ashwell Academy in Hull, East Yorks, and beginning somewhere new.
Until then her teaching career had provided a "white noise" that helped to block out her deep-seated anxiety and unhappiness about her gender.
But the fear of being "discovered" made her even more determined to be open about the change.
Claire added: "I am quite a determined person, so I think I would always have been as successful as I have been.
"But teaching is such an intense, pressured environment it meant it could become like a white noise behind what I was feeling.
"I just wasn't sure if the industry was ready for it.
"But I just thought of all the children who might be experiencing what I went through.
"I don't want any child to feel what I felt. After living so long feeling invisible, I wanted to make myself visible.
"It's like I'm taking everyone on this journey with me. And it's not been easy."
Claire, who had felt different from the age of four, said 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".
One of her pupils at the secondary school said he was proud to have a transgender headteacher.
Alfie Wilson, 13, said Claire has a right “to feel good about herself” and deserves to feel happy in her own skin.
He said: “She is just a normal person.
“When I first came to Ashwell I looked up on YouTube for Ashwell Academy to see if there was anything on there and I was surprised to see there was a promotional video and I saw it and it was Mr Birkenshaw.
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“When I came in for the first time I was just open minded about it because I’ve never met a transgender person before.
“So when I met her and I was just talking to her, she was just a normal person. I didn’t think there was anything else to it.”
Alfie condemned the prejudice faced by many transgender people saying it did not matter what gender a person was.
He added: “There’s a lot of hatred towards transgender people.
“I know transgender people get called a lot of names and there’s a lot of prejudice but that’s just not right. They’re just like anybody else.
“I don’t care whether they are transgender or not. It’s about what they are most comfortable about.”