Recently, the UK Department of Education released an updated version of the “Relationship Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education”(RSHE) program, which created a wave of dissatisfaction among parents at Parkfield School. Despite criticism, the ‘No Outsiders for a Faith Community’ program will return to the school, following RSHE guidelines.
Parents have expressed their concern regarding the program, as according to them, it is showing significant bias towards topics related to the LGBTQ community, and this is not what equality is all about. Parents at Anderton Park Primary School also deem the course inappropriate because of the age of their children, who are too young to comprehend the importance of many of the concepts discussed during equality classes.
The school’s thoughts on the equality program
According to a spokesperson for the Parkfield School, the ‘No Outsiders for a Faith Community’ program has been specifically designed for the needs and purposes of the students at the school. Teachers at the school have decided to make amends to the original program of the government, and in 2014, Andrew Moffat, Assistant head at Parkfield School, wrote the version that the school will be using.
Government statistics reveal that about one hundred schools across the country have adopted the ‘No Outsiders for a Faith Community’ program for their equality classes.
The UK Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) has ruled that the course is age-appropriate for the students at Parkfield School.
While the Parkfield School protest remained calm, Anderton Park School had to go through a High Court ruling, so that parents could be banned from entering the gate of the school with protest banners.
