Non-binary sex education charity ‘falsely claimed’ Ofsted support
A SEX education charity that teaches pupils how to “break” gender binary beliefs has been accused of falsely claiming to be endorsed by Ofsted.
Educate and Celebrate is featured on multiple primary school websites as an Ofsted-recognised “best practice” programme. The charity runs Pride workshops for primary and secondary schools pupils, which include “how to break the binary and be gender inclusive”, according to its website.
Its founder, Dr Elly Barnes, has advised teachers that it is permissible not to tell parents if a pupil declares themselves to be transgender, and also said that terms such as “boys”, “girls”, “son” and “mother” should be replaced with the gender-neutral words “pupils”, “students”, “child” and “parent”.
Educate and Celebrate has recently removed an alleged endorsement from Ofsted from its website after it was asked to do so by the group. The school inspectorate said it does not endorse any resource providers.
However, the charity, which is understood to have worked with more than 100 schools, still features as an Ofsted-endorsed organisation on primary school websites.
Heather Binning, a spokesman for
‘The charity teaches children that humans can change sex and that sexual orientation is a choice’
the Women’s Rights Network, said: “We are very concerned about Educate and Celebrate.”
She said that the charity “promotes highly contentious theories about gender identity to children of primary school age and above, teaching them that human beings can change sex and that sexual orientation is just a matter of choice.” She added: “None of this is age-appropriate or remotely acceptable, yet Educate and Celebrate has been operating in plain sight since at least 2014.
“Some of its publicity claimed that it was an ‘Ofsted and Department for Education recognised Best Practice Award Programme’ but when this was highlighted to Ofsted, they denied this.”
Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, warned last week that children are being taught sex education lessons that have “no basis in any reputable scientific biological explanation”.
She told The Daily Telegraph that Ofsted is currently powerless to sanction schools teaching inappropriate materials, and welcomed an urgent Government review.
Rishi Sunak has ordered a review of the Department for Education’s sex education guidance in response to concerns raised by MPS about “age-inappropriate” materials from external providers being taught in schools.