Teachers should avoid calling female pupils “girls” or “ladies” because it means they are “constantly reminded of their gender”, a former government mental health tsar has said.

Natasha Devon, who was appointed MBE in 2015 for “services to young people”, said the move would help transgendered children as well as encourage female and male students to defy traditional notions of gender, which affect “well-being”.

She told the Girls’ School Association’s annual conference in Manchester that she would “never walk into a room in an all-girls’ school and say ‘girls’ or ‘ladies’” because it is “patronising”.

Teachers should instead address youngsters as “pupils”, “students”, or even just “people”, she insisted, according to The Telegraph.

“I don’t think it is useful to be constantly reminded of your gender all the time and all the stereotypes that go with it.”

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