City braced for more LGBT demos
BIRMINGHAM education chiefs are bracing themselves for more protests over LGBT teaching in city schools following the summer break.
Councillor Jayne Francis, cabinet member for education, told the education and children’s social care overview and scrutiny committee that support was being provided to teachers, staff and parents at Anderton Park Primary School.
She added the council will also be back in the High Court in October after getting a temporary injunction to ban protests in the area surrounding the Sparkhill school.
Protests have been taking place outside the school since the start of the year which have been led by parents concerned that primary school aged children are too young to learn about LGBT people.
A new relationship and sex curriculum is set to come into force in September 2020 which will require primary schools to teach about different families and secondary schools to teach about sexual orientation and gender identity.
While parents will be able to choose to ‘opt out’ of sex education, pupils will have the option to opt in from the age of 15.
Councillor Francis said: “It’s been quiet over the summer as you may expect but the protests are back.
“We are working closely with the schools and giving support to teachers and parents. That is very much a work in progress.
“Currently, we have an interim injunction in place and we will be back to the High Court in the middle of October. It is important to recognise that it’s not just Birmingham subject to recent legislation. It’s rapidly turning into a national problem.
“We are working on developing a toolkit that can be widely used with schools.
“I want this committee to understand that we are working extremely hard to obtain the best possible outcome for schools, teachers, support staff and parents.
“In the next 12 months we have a new curriculum aspect coming in with relation to sex education which I think most people support.
“But we are likely to continue to be faced with those who don’t agree with the equalities agenda and those who want to challenge and we have to be ready and make sure we’ve got everything in place and the support mechanisms in place for the schools and parents to address those issues.”