What’s really behind the school gates’ culture clash?
A row over sex education has sparked a battle at a Birmingham primary, says Eleanor Steafel
Outside Parkfield Community School in Birmingham is a blue and white sign. “We are a Unicef Gold Rights Respecting school,” it reads. “Children’s rights are learned, understood and lived in this school.” Even the sign welcoming children to this “outstanding” primary is written in six languages, ensuring no one is left out.
It’s 8am, and on any normal Thursday, the playground, with its allotment and play equipment, would be filling with children waving goodbye to their parents. Today, the school is a battleground.
Pressed against the gates, 150 mothers and children clutch placards that say: “Let kids be kids!”, “Say no to undermining parental rights!” and “Respect and be respected!”
On the other side of the street, 50 or so fathers stand solemnly, their arms folded, many of them with sons peeking out from behind. It’s an odd scene, made all the more strange as it’s World Book Day, so the tiny protesters are dressed as Harry Potter and Mary Poppins. It’s not clear if they understand the fuss, but their parents say their rights are on the line.
Since January, Parkfield, just east of Birmingham city centre, has been embroiled in a row between the predominantly Muslim parent body and the assistant head teacher. Andrew Moffat – who has an MBE for his services to equality and diversity in education, and was shortlisted for the World’s Best Teacher prize – has been criticised for piloting “No Outsiders”, a programme that teaches children that everyone is welcome. It also promotes LGBTQ equality and challenges homophobia in schools.
The classes, which also include teaching about race, religion, gender identity, age and disabilities, are based on a book written by Mr Moffat. It contains advice on how to talk to children about these issues.
Mr Moffat, who is gay himself, resigned from a Birmingham primary school in 2014, after parents said they did not want their children to “learn it’s OK to be gay”.
“It was a very difficult time, and I was quite damaged by the experience,” he said at the time. Now, parents at Parkfield say they were never informed about the content of No Outsiders – which the school says has been running, save a few initial concerns, with no objections from parents, for four years and was given approval by the governors – and want the classes stopped.
Nothing about this standoff is straightforward. The parents (98 per cent of whom are Muslim) say they’ve been called “backwards” and “homophobic”, and, undoubtedly, their opposition to the programme lies in the fact that conservative
Islam condemns homosexuality. Yet, outside the gates, every protesting parent I speak to tells me that they respect gay rights and understand that, in modern Britain, their children are going to grow up learning about different kinds of relationships.
Meanwhile, the school, which says No Outsiders was recognised by Ofsted as a key strength in its 2016 report, has been accused by parents of flagrantly sexualising four-year-olds, while Mr Moffat is seen by them as pushing a singular agenda. Last Friday, this spectacular culture clash saw 600 families in a school of 740 keep pupils at home, with many threatening to remove them if the class isn’t ditched.
It all began in December, when reception-age children started coming home saying a teacher had told them that “it was OK to be gay, and OK to switch gender”.
“Since my daughter has been going there, she’s been saying things like: ‘I can wear my brother’s clothes and he can wear mine. I can change my name to a boy’s name’,” says Mariam Ahmed, whose daughter Annayah started in reception last year. “I talked to other mums and many had similar stories.”
Speaking to me outside the school, Mohammed Hassan says his children are becoming confused by the mixed messages they receive at home and in the classroom.
“[My son] said: ‘The teachers tell us there’s two mummies and two daddies, so I’ve got another mummy.’ I said: ‘No, you’ve got a mummy and a daddy’. They should be teaching this at a certain level, not getting kids to dress up as and telling them it’s OK to be who you are. It’s not OK to be gay in Islam. You’re either Muslim, or you’re gay. The teachers are saying it’s OK but it’s not. And it’s confusing.”
New government guidance states that, from September 2020, primary schools must offer relationships education, and secondary schools relationships and sex education.
‘It’s not OK to be gay in Islam. You’re either Muslim, or you’re gay’
Schools must consult parents on that teaching, and it “must be age- and developmentally appropriate”.
“It must be taught sensitively and inclusively,” the guidance says, “with respect to backgrounds and beliefs of pupils and parents while always with the aim of providing pupils with the knowledge they need of the law.”
It says schools should be “free to determine” how they teach LGBTQ issues, but expects all pupils “to have been taught it at a timely point”.
It is the timeliness and the content of the classes that most Parkfield parents say they take exception to. They are quick to say that they have no problem with Mr Moffat and don’t care that he’s gay. It’s the age of the children, and what they believe is bias in his teaching, that is the issue.
But since the first protests, the conflict has turned sour. Mr Moffat says he has received “nasty emails” and threats, while protesters have accused him of promoting “personal beliefs”. Last week, homophobic graffiti appeared on school property, while a statement from Hazel Pulley, CEO of Excelsior Multi Academy Trust, says consultations with parents were curtailed after becoming “personal and aggressive”.
Mr Moffat says he is “pragmatic” about the dispute. “We’ve got to find a way to engage parents on some issues that many find challenging,” he told The Guardian.
For the parents, they feel the right to teach their children about these issues in their own way is being trumped. “We’re not stupid, we’re all aware of what our society is about and how it’s changing,” says Mariam. “I’m not saying don’t ever talk about it, but don’t be so focused on it.”
It isn’t just the Muslim community who have come out to protest. Dr Lisa Nolland, a Christian campaigner and sex historian, travelled from Bristol to offer her support, congratulating them for “showing us the way”.
“This isn’t about religion, it isn’t about parents, it’s about what’s best for kids,” she tells me. “This is literally eroticising child development. This is damaging children.”
For many, the Parkfield protests have brought back chilling memories of Section 28, part of Government’s 1988 Local Government Act that prevented schools from “promoting” homosexuality – a fanciful notion, but one that ensured a generation of teachers demurred when it came to discussing homosexuality in the classroom. The law was only revoked in 2003.
No Outsiders classes are currently cancelled, but Parkfield says it intends to relaunch them after Easter. Though it hopes to hold talks with concerned parties before then, parents have vowed to continue protesting until the lessons stop permanently.
“The way it’s going I think it will end up with a further walkout,” says Mariam, “not just for a day either.”