School play to promote ‘nanny state’ snooper plan... to five-year-olds

Theatre group paid to stage show praising Named Persons

CHILDREN as young as five are being given lessons to help smooth the way for the SNP’s new state guardian scheme.

A theatre group has been paid thousands of pounds of public money to tour primary schools with a play that lays the ground for the controversial project.

Ministers are pressing ahead with the introduction of Named Persons – which will see every youngster assigned an official to monitor their upbringing until the age of 18 – despite opposition from parents and campaigners.

Now, as part of the latest production by Glasgow-based Hopscotch Theatre Company, pupils are being taught songs about having rights under a United Nations convention and the Scottish Government’s definition of well-being.

Meanwhile, classroom materials minimise the role of parents, telling teachers to encourage children to think that it is the job of all adults to love and care for them.

Campaign group No To Named Persons, which is trying to defeat the scheme through the courts, claimed that the play was ‘statesponsored indoctrination’.

Spokesman Simon Calvert said: ‘These people are damaging family relationships. Encouraging children to rely on strangers in the same way they rely on their mum or dad makes them vulnerable. Parents are already worried the Named Person will undermine them without this exercise in softening up young minds with right-on propaganda.

‘When there are countries where girls are banned from going to school and boys are recruited as child soldiers, this attempt to use an international children’s rights convention to draw pupils into supporting unpopular Scottish Government policy is, frankly, repulsive.

‘I hope parents will tell schools they want their children to have nothing to do with it. Who thought it was a good idea to teach children to sing the praises of government policy? Most parents would prefer their children to be singing nursery rhymes, not Named Person mantras.’

In preparation for the scheme, primary schools across Scotland are paying £405 for a performance of Hopscotch’s Rights Of The Child.

The hour-long show tells the story of a schoolboy who dreams about visiting the UN headquarters and then wakes up enthused about tell- ing the rest of his class about what they are entitled to.

As part of the package, teachers receive lesson plans, one of which relegates parents to one of only several categories of people with a primary duty to look after children.

Hopscotch – which aims to have targeted the message at more than 30,000 children by March – confirmed that the play was put together in conjunction with government agency Education Scotland. Asked if it was designed to lay the ground for Named Persons and persuade children to support the SNP policy, administrator Stephanie Black said: ‘Yes, this is everything we’re kind of hoping to achieve. It’s been so successful that we’re bringing it back for a three-week tour in February. We have schools on a waiting list.

‘We felt this is something we could do quite well with a view to an educational performance. It kickstarted from there and we also had quite a lengthy chat with Education Scotland to make sure we were on the right page and we weren’t stepping outside the boundaries.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The Named Person role was introduced to provide a single point of contact for families and builds on the supportive role that teachers and health professionals have long offered to children, young people and parents.’