Family Education Trust – Written evidence (EDU0017)

We are responding to the specific part of the call for evidence concerning school accountability.

At Family Education Trust we have a particular concern for the welfare of children and young people especially in relation to education about sexual matters. We believe that parents are the primary educators of their children, a principle protected in British law. However, Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is one of the areas where schools have shown a shocking lack of accountability to parents. As a charity we are frequently contacted by parents who have been effectively barred from having access to the RSE and PSHE materials that are being used to teach their children. For example, a mother with children in an academy school in Cambridgeshire recently told us that she was struggling for the right to access materials being used by the school in the Personal Development (PD) part of PSHE. This mother said:

I have discovered through my interactions with the school that there is no official process of engagement…The PD Lead believes she’s gone beyond what is necessary in her communication with me (with our in-person conversations) and the resources she has shared in these meetings. It has become obvious that they will not easily share resources upon request and…parents will officially only be able to view them all once a year at the yearly consultation.

Also, I was told at the meeting that there is no school policy that outlines the process of determining age appropriateness (and schools are not required to have one). I was informed that each school determines age appropriateness and there are no guidelines from the Department for Education on this. This is total madness.

Another mother with children in a Yorkshire school told us:

My son  came home last week from school having had his first RSE lesson in PHSE… I asked him how school had been and he said "awful". I thought he was in trouble but he'd said this teacher handed them all a dildo and threw packets of condoms at them and said this was how they would avoid STIs and pregnancy.

These kids are 12/13 in Year 8. As a parent I would have liked to be aware beforehand when children are being taught about sex and what is being taught in lessons so that I’m prepared to answer questions he might have. There was no transparency from school on what was said and he was too embarrassed to talk any further about it.

Another area where there is a lack of accountability to parents is in how schools deal with issues surrounding gender. In 2022 we recorded a number of these cases in our booklet Gender Ideology and Our Children. In particular we would highlight the case of a primary school in Essex. One of the governors in this school related to Family Education Trust how an eight-year-old boy in the school had self-identified as a girl and the school agreed that this should be announced in class. There was to be no communication with parents until the child had announced to the class. All concerns were to be referred to the headteacher. The headteacher’s policy was fully supported by the Department for Education. The governing body was told that this was the law, which was not true. The trans advocacy group Mermaids was brought in to provide training. The governors were told they could not speak to any concerned parents. They were simply told that the child is self-identifying and there can be no communication with parents.

The governor stated in a communication to Family Education Trust:

The biggest argument with the head and governors was over parental consent. We asked for a letter to be sent to parents. Teachers later confided to me that they felt pressured by the head to go along. They didn’t feel comfortable with it, but they feared for their jobs. They were supportive of our stand, but they were silent. There was no psychological assessment of the child. Children felt intimidated. How do you explain to an 8-year-old that this boy is now a girl? Teachers were being disciplined for using the wrong pronouns and parents and teachers were under pressure not to say anything.

Subsequently, the boy involved in this case has reverted to identifying as his birth sex.[1]

Parents with children at schools across the country have contacted us with concerns about Jigsaw PSHE. Jigsaw contains considerable promotion of transgender and non-binary themes. Jigsaw has become notorious for its lack of accountability to parents who want to view its materials. Many schools are reluctant to share the Jigsaw materials with parents arguing reasons of commercial sensitivity and copyright. However, on 31 March the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, wrote a letter to schools in which she stated:

...the Department would expect schools to avoid entering into any agreement with an external agency that seeks to prevent them from ensuring parents are properly aware of the materials that are being used to teach their children. Schools should not agree to contractual restrictions on showing parents the content used in RSHE teaching or agree to this being subject to a third party’s right of refusal...the default position must always be that the content is shared with parents.[2]

Schools need to take heed of these words and show a basic accountability to parents.

11-16 year olds are still vulnerable and legally considered as children under the protection of their parents. It is essential therefore that parents know what their children are being taught in schools, especially if, like the examples we have cited above, much of what is taught is age-inappropriate.

We believe that school accountability would also be strengthened if the right of parents to withdraw their children from RSE were strengthened. This has been seriously compromised under recent legislation with the ultimate decision now lying with the headteacher. We believe that this needs to shift so that parents have the final say in whether or not their children take part in RSE. This would greatly enhance the accountability of schools to parents.

26 April 2023

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