Relationship classes face judicial review as parents call for opt-out
THE Government’s decision to ban parents from withdrawing children from “relationships education” lessons faces a judicial review, The Sunday Tel
egraph can disclose.
From September this year, primary schoolchildren will be required to attend compulsory classes exploring topics including LGBT, the building blocks of consent and how to recognise abuse.
The Department for Education’s guidance says schools should engage with parents when it comes to delivering the curriculum, but emphasises that the ultimate decision on what is taught lies with teachers, and parents have no “veto” on content.
Let Kids be Kids, a campaigning group set up this year, wants these classes to be made optional to avoid children being exposed to ideas which may not correlate with the “religious and philosophical convictions” of their family. It argues that the inability to opt out of classes without explanation also obliges parents to write to the head teacher, subjecting them to “an undue burden and also a risk of stigmatisation, with a risk of exposure of sensitive aspects of their private life”.
The group wrote a letter to the Government ahead of the judicial review, insisting that the country had been left with “an educational regime which taken as a whole no longer gives effect to the rights of parents to ensure teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions and is therefore in breach of the parents’ rights.” The Government has until 4pm on July 31 to respond to the letter.
While many primary schools teach sex education, parents have an automatic right to withdraw their child from the lessons.
Let Kids be Kids argues that this right should extend to “relationships education” lessons, claiming that material of a “controversial moral nature” could be introduced by teachers who have particular ideological goals.
A DfE spokesman said: “From September, relationships education will be compulsory for all primary schoolaged pupils, relationships and sex education will be compulsory for all secondary school-aged pupils, and health education will be compulsory for all state-funded school pupils.
“These subjects are designed to foster respect for others and to educate pupils about healthy relationships.”
‘[It] no longer gives effect to the right of parents to ensure teaching in conformity with their own convictions’