Recently, I have been on my school website to check if the school was open due to severe weather conditions. As I read through the website, I noticed the following text:

'Our school badge makes clear our aim - to help every young person to be the best he or she can be, by nurturing our students’ unique gifts and talents.'

As an active member of the LGBT+ community, I noticed that the use of 'he/she' pronouns may make transgender students uncomfortable and may make them feel as though they do not fit into the school community as they do not fit under these pronouns.

I believe my school's ethics highlight the need for everyone, no matter their gender or sexual orientation to be included into the community so they can achieve their best. After all, the first step to a society in which everyone is accepted no matter their race, gender, sexuality is, I believe, in schools and in what we teach our children.

I emailed my head teacher regarding the matter of the pronouns and she asked me to meet her. I went to the meeting and we discussed the matter and I suggested an alternative to the use of 'he or she'.

She said it was grammatically incorrect and did not change it.

My revised and grammatically correct version of the text is:

'Our school badge makes clear our aim - to help all young people to be the best they can be, by nurturing our students’ unique gifts and talents.'

I'm not changing the world with this petition. I just want to take one small step to make my school a more inclusive place, if people see that we are trying, then we can make a difference. We can change lives. We can help.