AN OXFORD teacher who was suspended after calling a transgender student a girl has said he is taking the school to an employment tribunal.

Joshua Sutcliffe was suspended from Cherwell School in November after telling a room full of students 'well done girls' when one of them wanted to be identified as a boy. The 27-year-old now says he was unfairly dismissed.

Mr Sutcliffe, from Oxford, began working at the school in September 2015 and taught children aged 11 to 18.

On November 2, he said a complaint was made that he referred to a pupil as a girl, rather than boy.

Mr Sutcliffe, who said he had been given no formal instruction on how he was to refer to the pupil, said that when the pupil became upset he tried to defuse the situation and apologised.

Following a week-long investigation, the school said Mr Sutcliffe had 'misgendered' the pupil, breaching school equality rules.

Mr Sutcliffe has now written to headmaster Chris Price accusing the school of 'increasingly oppressive' behaviour and presuming him to be guilty.

In the letter he said: "I am more than willing to answer all the unjustified allegations you are now advancing against me, and detail my own grievances about your totalitarian ‘equality’ policies and practices. However, I intend to do so before an independent tribunal, not before yourselves acting as a judge and jury in your own case."

Mr Price told this paper last month "This school takes issues of equality and discrimination seriously, whether they be issues to do with religious belief or gender identity."