Shock at CofE school where Mr Upton will return after Christmas as Miss Meadows



Nathan Upton, a teacher at St Mary Magdalen's School in Accrington will also dress as a woman from next term

The school has given the teacher its full support

Parents were informed via a letter under a section of 'staff changes'

Mr Upton had previously been married to wife Ruth but they have separated



It was not your average Christmas newsletter for a Church of England primary school.

Marked ‘staff changes’, it began conventionally enough, informing parents that Mrs Metcalfe was leaving for a new teaching position in Spain.

It explained that ‘Miss Wharmby will be teaching Year 1 full-time’ and that ‘Mrs Kelly will be reducing her hours’.

But the sixth paragraph came as a bit of a shock.

‘Mr Upton has recently made a significant change in his life and will be transitioning to live as a woman,’ it read.

‘After the Christmas break, she will return to work as Miss Meadows.’

It then said the school was ‘proud of our commitment to equality and diversity among our staff and children’.

Yesterday parents at St Mary Magdalen’s Primary School in Accrington, Lancashire, were coming to terms with the fact the popular Year 6 teacher previously known as Nathan Upton – a father-of-one who until recently was married – is now Lucy Meadows.

They told how pupils had been informed that the 32-year-old felt he had been ‘born with a girl’s brain in a boy’s body’.

However some complained that their children were too young to understand how ‘Sir’ could become ‘Miss’ almost overnight and were confused and upset.

Mr Upton married Ruth Smith in 2009 and the couple had a son, now aged three.

He joined the school around the same time and, according to parents, began growing his cropped hair and dying it purple, painting his nails pink and wearing sparkly headbands.

A crayon drawing of Mr Upton by a pupil posted on the school’s website shows him with hair swept back over his shoulders.



‘At first we thought he was just borrowing his wife’s headbands to hold his hair back,’ said one parent.

‘I saw what I thought was Mr Upton dressed as a woman in town one weekend, but I decided I’d imagined it.’



Mr Upton is understood to be in the early stages of ‘gender reassignment’, living as a woman before deciding to proceed with a full sex change.

St Mary Magdalen's School in Accrington have asked pupils to address teacher Nathan Upton as Miss Meadows from the start of the Spring term

A drawing by a school pupil of Mr Upton posted on the school's website complete with long hair

The school’s 169 pupils were informed class-by-class on Monday, and at the same time the newsletter was hand-delivered to parents.

In a statement, Mr Upton said: ‘This has been a long and difficult journey for me, and it was certainly not an easy decision to make.’

Thanking the school for its support, he added: ‘I’d now ask for my privacy to be respected so that I can continue with my job, which I’m committed to and which I enjoy very much.’

Headmistress Karen Hardman said: ‘We understand that an issue such as this is bound to arouse interest for a short while.

'However, this is a personal matter for our staff member, who has our full support, and we are all working together to ensure it has the least impact on the smooth running of our school.’



Mr Upton’s wife – who served as a governor at St Mary Magdalen’s – has left their terraced home close to the school.



But her parents, Geoff and Hazel Smith, said that while his decision to live as a woman had come as a huge shock, they were standing by him.

‘We love him and her very much,’ said Mr Smith, 71.

‘We will support him no matter what.’

A ten-year-old pupil said: ‘He spoke to us and said he’s going to be changing into a woman and wearing women’s clothes after Christmas.

'We were all a bit shocked.’

Wayne Cowie, whose ten-year-old son has been taught by Mr Upton for three years, said his children were worried and confused.

‘My middle boy thinks that he might wake up with a girl’s brain because he was told that Mr Upton, as he got older, got a girl’s brains,’ the 35-year-old decorator said.



‘He’s a great teacher, but my kids are too young to be told about the birds and the bees like this.’



Mr Cowie said his son had been told he would be punished if he continued to refer to the teacher as ‘Mr Upton’ next term.

Another parent said: ‘This is totally inappropriate.



‘Any teacher who is going to change gender should also change schools.’

A school spokesman said pupils wouldn’t be punished for referring to the teacher as Mr Upton, but added they would be ‘expected to behave properly around her’.



Father Wayne Kelly is angry after receiving the letter from St Mary Magdalen's Primary School informing him of his son's teacher's change