The Board of Deputies has welcomed new guidelines on independent schools which make clear that teaching respect for others should include reference to LGBT people.

The Department for Education’s guidance says that it will be insufficient simply to teach respect “in a general way”, tightening the regulations from five years ago.

Edwin Shuker, the Board vice-president whose brief includes education, said the DfE had “taken on board the perspectives put forward by the Board of Deputies and other community groups in ensuring all of the protected characteristics outlined in the Equality Act are mentioned, including religious belief.”

Protected characteristics include sexual orientation and gender reassignment.

Mr Shuker welcomed the flexibility given to schools to “educate according to their ethos in teaching about different protected characteristics at ages considered appropriate by each school”.

He added it was “encouraging that the guidance states that there will not normally be enforcement action and school closures for ‘one or two unmet requirements’ of the standards.”

The DfE published its revised guidance last week following a year-long consultation.

But the Board noted that the impact would depend on how Ofsted applies it in school inspections.

One Charedi independent school last week received commendation from Ofsted last week, which ranked it outstanding in one area and good in the rest.

Pupils at the Manchester Senior Girls’ School attained better than average GCSE results, the inspection service reported.

The school was “outward-looking” and met equality requirements, with pupils understanding that people lived in families “different from their own”.

But the DfE has recently issued warning notices to two other Manchester Charedi independent schools, Tashbar for Boys and Beish Ruchel d’Satmar for girls, and a third in London, Tiferes High School for girls.