Teachers at Cheltenham Girls high school in Sydney were never told they should avoid referring to students as “girls”, “women” or “ladies”, despite claims in the Daily Telegraph on Wednesday that they had been asked to use gender-neutral language.

The front page story by Miranda Devine claimed the request to use gender-neutral language at the all-girls school in north-west Sydney was made at a staff meeting to discuss the implementation of the Safe Schools program earlier this year.

According to the story, titled “School bans girls”, teachers were told “that if they did not support decisions of LGBTI students they would be breaking the law, would be considered homophobic and were not welcome by the school”.

The allegations made in the Daily Telegraph are being investigated at the request of the New South Wales education minister, Adrian Piccoli, as is departmental policy for any public complaint.

But Guardian Australia understands there was never any instruction given to avoid use of “girls”, “ladies”, “women” or other gender-specific terms at Cheltenham Girls high school, and there was no basis to the Daily Telegraph’s report.

In a post to Facebook on Wednesday afternoon (which it then deleted and reposted on Thursday), the school said it had “a proud ongoing tradition of providing high quality education for girls”.

“The school has not and will not change the way students’ gender is referred to.”

Representatives for the school earlier deferred requests for comment to the NSW Department of Education, where a spokesman said in a statement that gender-specific terms would continue to be used at the school.

Damien Tudehope, the Liberal MP for Epping, had told the Daily Telegraph that parents of students at the school had told him their daughters were “ostracised” for objecting to its pro-equality events.



He also told other media that he had received four complaints and a petition with 19 signatures, though it is understood that these were about the Safe Schools program in general, not the alleged instruction at Cheltenham Girls high. Tudehope declined to comment to Guardian Australia.

Gender-exclusive language is not a cornerstone of Safe Schools, which aims to create safer and more inclusive learning environments in schools for students, staff and families.

A spokeswoman said its work with schools was not prescriptive: “it is up to school leaders and teachers to decide what is most appropriate and relevant for their school”.



Miranda Devine is a vocal opponent of the initiative, having described it as “benignly labelled sexual propaganda” that teaches “homosexual role play and gender fluidity training”.

In an opinion piece also published on Wednesday, she wrote that forces at Cheltenham Girls high school sought to “impose a transformation of the traditional view of male and female”.

“We are told that it is bigotry to have a ‘heteronormative’ view of gender as binary – male or female – or to believe that heterosexual attraction is the norm.

“This is the attitude which Safe Schools is designed to stamp out.”

Devine’s report was discussed on 2GB, with host Chris Smith describing it as “deplorable” that schools were being led by “that twisted bible, the Safe Schools program”.