Elite girls’ school to move away from calling students ‘girls’, ‘ladies’

An all-female Melbourne private school has moved away from calling students “girls” and “ladies” to support gender-fluid pupils.

Toorak College no longer refers to students as ‘girls’ in a bid to make gender fluid and transgender pupils feel safe on campus.

Students are no longer all referred to as ‘girls’ and can wear pants at an elite Mornington Peninsula all female college.

Mt Eliza’s Toorak College overhauled its traditional uniform policy and avoids general female references when addressing cohorts with non-binary students to make gender fluid and transgender students feel safe on campus.

The changes are believed to be student-led in collaboration with staff after at least two senior students revealed they did not identify as female.

Uniform changes mean students can choose to wear the traditional school skirt, or instead opt for long pants in a bid to strike the “very delicate balance” between maintaining the school’s female identity and representing non-binary students.

Principal Kristy Kendall said the moves to support non-binary students were part of the school’s priority to ensure all students felt represented on campus.

“We’ve taken huge leaps and bounds at the school with the inclusion of pants and shorts with our school uniform,” she said.

“It was very hard for me to look out at the students and say, ‘do whatever you want in the world, but please do it in a skirt’.

Toorak College students will no longer be referred to as ‘girls’.

“I’ve got students who do not like to be referred to as girls. If someone doesn’t want to be referred to as a girl, then I will refer to them in the way they are most comfortable with.

“There are people within communities that don’t identify with that (female), and we need to think about our language in those contexts.”

Toorak College is among other single-sex schools shaking up their policies and traditions.

Several transgender and non-binary students attend Springvale’s Killester College, where student bathrooms are no longer labelled with female presenting signage.

Students at Mentone Girls’ Secondary College can wear pants rather than dresses or skirts.

Transgender Victoria chief executive Mama Alto said it was much more difficult for single-sex schools to make non-binary students feel safe, but students benefited greatly from additional support.

“Single-sex education environments are particularly difficult for trans, gender diverse and non-binary students to navigate. How can you feel safe, how can you learn, if there is no equitable access, amenities and inclusion for you?” she said.

“It can be challenging for schools to affirm and include gender diverse students if parents and families aren’t supportive of their children’s identity. But importantly, affirmative support from schools in those contexts can be particularly lifesaving.”

The Safe Schools program in Victorian public schools trains teachers to support LGBTQIA+ students.

But Ms Kendall said maintaining the identity and pride of female presenting students was just as important amid the changes.

“I’ve been talking to our students about making sure that we don’t think that girls and feminism and being a female becomes a negative thing either,” she said.

“We are still very much women fighting for a sense of equality and recognition. We’ve got a large percentage of students in our school who identify as girls and women, so it is a really delicate balance.”