Sally St Claire is the new headteacher of Hollyoaks High – the fictional school on TV soap Hollyoaks. This week, her past is revealed when a fellow teacher discovers that she wasn’t always Ms St Claire – she used to be Mr.

The next few months will see St Claire’s storyline develop as a transgender teacher coming out to pupils, colleagues and family. Just like real-life trans teachers, she will face her fair share of ignorance and prejudice.

Trans activists such as Juno Roche (who advised Hollyoaks with the plot) hope that the storyline will raise awareness about the realities and challenges of transitioning in the education system. As a former teacher she knows all too well what it can be like.

She'd been teaching for eight years when, in 2009, she told the headteacher that she was transgender and would be returning to school as a woman.

“When I told said I wanted to transition and keep my job it was like I said I wanted to plant a bomb under the school,” says Roche, 51. “It was put to me that it would destroy its very fabric.”

The headteacher suggested she’d be better off transitioning privately, before returning to work in a different school where no one knew her gender history. Roche explains that was once very common for trans teachers – even though, legally, they can transition while they work.

“There were some situations were trans teachers had gone off and transitioned like butterflies on their own, then come back to new schools." Juno Roche

“No one followed the law back then,” she says. “There were some situations were trans teachers had gone off and transitioned like butterflies on their own, then come back to new schools. For me, it was important the kids saw it. Part of transitioning is being at work every day and being with people, not just sitting at home.”

For some, the lack of awareness around trans laws has been catastrophic. In 2013, trans teacher Lucy Meadows took her life at the age of 32. Though media coverage of her story seemed to be a factor in her suicide, societal ignorance and 'bigotry' surrounding trans teachers also appeared to have played a part.

Thankfully, Roche’s experience did not end in tragedy. But it was still tough.

She ended up fighting a two year legal battle for the right to carry on teaching while transitioning. Days before they were due to go to court, the school settled and she was allowed to carry on teaching as a woman, in the school where she’d previously taught as a man.

She says the reception from the children was fantastic – they settled into calling her Miss. A letter was sent to parents, and apart from a few negative responses, there were largely no issues.

Juno Roche, right, discusses policy with a government official

But the legal struggle she'd gone through left a bitter taste. So Roche decided to give up her job in order to help other trans teachers, and their schools, deal with the process.

“There are just no trans policies in schools,” she says. “If you have children who are trans or gender variant and don’t have a policy how can you protect them? How can you make sure teachers transitioning are given their legal rights?”

The Department of Education currently has no clear guidance on teachers transitioning in the job. But it has just come out that in a bid to improve diversity, schools are being offered £30,000 extra funding to hire and promote gay and transgender teachers - money that could be used for recruitment or training.

The policy has been criticised for positive discrimination, but Roche says: "I feel the money being offered to schools to try and create a diverse workforce shows how seriously it is being taken. Many of our school teams do not reflect society's broad identities and if this can help, then I have no issue. Incentives are continually made available to improve staff and structures - it is a matter of urgency that when pupils look up they are likely to see someone just like them, be they trans or otherwise."

She's still campaigning for DoE guidance, but in the meantime, she's trying to encourage as many schools as she can to voluntarily come up with policy. One she visited was an inner-city state secondary school in London, where she helped 28-year-old trans teacher John (not his real name).

"I was lying to my colleagues. It felt like it wasn’t just the wrong body, but the wrong profession." John

John was born as a girl, but had identified as male since the age of three - using a masculine name and dressing in 'male clothing'. It wasn't until he watched a documentary on being transgender, aged 17, that he found a label for what he was experiencing.

He wanted to transition as a teenager, after leaving school, but tells me he didn’t because of his desire to be a teacher.

“I didn’t think I could do both – teaching and transition. I thought I should get my PGCE [Postgraduate Certificate in Education]. Then I could hide away, transition and come back as ‘Sir’.”

It meant he went to university as a woman, finished his training in 2011, and began teaching PE lessons without transitioning.

“I was teaching as a women but in my personal life I was a man,” he explains. “I still had my shorts and T-shirts and short hair, but they’d say ‘Miss’ and that was really weird for me.

“I was loving the job, but it was like living a lie. I was lying to my colleagues. It felt like it wasn’t just the wrong body, but the wrong profession. At parents day we’d have to wear smart clothes, but I didn’t want to wear a dress or skirt, so I’d say, 'oops I forgot'. The only think keeping me going was the end goal.”

After two years of teaching as a woman, John decided to transition. That's when he discovered Roche’s work and asked her for advice. “She told me I could legally transition while teaching. I never dreamed it would be possible - but it was.

“I decided not to take sabbatical but just carry on teaching. It was amazing. My headteacher was really open, and we worked with [Roche] to figure out the best way to handle it.”

The school sent out letters to parents, explained the situation to the pupils, and then the next day, John went to work as himself.

Children have generally reacted positively to trans teachers Credit: Alamy

“On the first day of the new register, they all got my name right. I had a lump in my throat when everyone called me ‘Sir’ not ‘Miss’. Some of them came up to me to say things like, 'Sir you’re so amazing, I’m so proud of you'. Even one really challenging pupil came and shook my hand.

“It was like, ‘you were a great teacher before and you still are, so we still love you’. Kids haven’t had time to learn to be angry. Their minds are so open. They’re in this environment where everything changes rapidly. Something new isn’t a big deal to them.”

He thinks that the biggest problem for trans teacher is never the pupils. Instead it’s just making sure they know their rights, and that the school knows how to handle the situation. “There needs to be more education on trans issues,” he says.

"People have a fear of the unknown, so we just need to make it less unknown.” John

“Even though my headteacher was open, there was no trans policy to follow. It could have been horrific. There’s policy on everything else. Staff should have a one-off training session. We need to take the fear out of everything. People have a fear of the unknown, so we just need to make it less unknown.”

Roche agrees: “Head teachers are like anybody else. When 95 per cent of the population say they don’t know a trans person, guidance from government has to become policy. New school buildings should have genderless toilets, changing facilities that reflect our contemporary gender landscape and a curriculum that shows the broadest and truest reflection of society.

“The response to someone wishing to transition needs to be respectful and realistic. A trans employee or a trans teacher is an incredibly positive thing for any workforce – it is aspirational. Someone transitioning is like someone becoming a parent. It should be celebrated like a life event and they should never be discriminated against.”

Juno Roche advised Hollyoaks on their trans storyling alongside All About Trans, a project that promotes trans voices in the media and improves media coverage of the issues trans people may face in education and healthcare