The Guardian wonders why on earth anyone cares.

Vic Goddard, principal of Passmores secondary academy school in Essex, has no desire to get caught up in a culture war…

“Why do politicians have an opinion on my school toilets? On our uniform policy?” he said. “Sort out the rocketing electricity bills and the cost of living. Don’t get involved in small decisions you don’t add value to.”

Because “his” school toilets and uniform policy may be discriminatory against girls. That’s why.

Goddard is referring to what many schools up and down the country describe as the apparent politicisation of an increasingly incendiary issue that they are being forced to deal with on a regular basis: gender. Everything from toilets (single sex or unisex) and uniforms (skirts or trousers) to reading material and pupils’ pronouns is the subject of hostile debate in a way not witnessed previously, headteachers say.

No kidding; that’s because people are finally learning what’s going on.

In Goddard’s case, as well as changes in pronouns the school has had to navigate issues such as gender-questioning pupils not feeling comfortable using the same single-sex changing room any more. The school is relatively new so it has more flexibility than schools in 50-year-old buildings. “We can just offer a compromise and say: ‘Change in here instead,’” Goddard explained. “Problem solved.” His point is that without interference from outsiders who do not have a stake in the school, these issues have traditionally been quietly resolved between the head, parents and pupils.

But what if the issues are “quietly resolved” in ways that are grossly unfair to girls, and the girls and their parents are too afraid of the shouty activists to defend the girls’ rights? There’s been a hell of a lot of “quiet resolving” over the last few years that hasn’t been fair to the girls. Having “a stake in the school” is not necessarily a guarantee of fairness.

Suella Braverman, the government’s attorney general, this summer entered the debate on how schools deal with gender issues. In a speech to the thinktank Policy Exchange earlier this month the Tory MP sparked controversy by stating that schools had no legal obligation to comply with the gender preference of their pupils, that they could refuse to allow transgender children to wear the uniform or use the toilet of their stated gender, and that schools which no longer provided single-sex toilets were breaking the law.

Whether she “sparked controversy” or not, she was right. Girls need single-sex toilets. That’s true even if it’s a Tory saying so.

It’s not a new narrative under the current government, according to a former employee for the Department for Education (DfE), but it is one that some claim is in danger of taking over more pressing issues for schools.

It’s not a “narrative” at all. That’s a sneery manipulative way of saying The Enemy is telling stories instead of making arguments.