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LGBT teaching row: DfE ‘pressured school’ to halt lessons

Source: www.educationviews.org - Saturday, July 27, 2019
Hazel Pulley has urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to intervene The government put “extreme pressure” on a school to stop lessons on LGBT relationships, a chief executive said. Hazel Pulley said Parkfield Community School suspended the teachings following “frantic phone calls” from the Department for Education (DfE). “The DfE really wanted the protests to stop. They wanted it out of the press,” said Ms Pulley, who is head of the trust which runs the school. The DfE is “working intensively with the school and parents”, it said. Ms Pulley also urged new Prime Minister Boris Johnson to step in and make guidance on the issue for head teachers clearer or risk further divisions in communities. Parkfield’s No Outsiders equality programme, which encourages children to accept differences in religions, families and relationships, was suspended in March amid angry protests at the school gates. Protesters stated the subject matter contradicted the Islamic faith and that primary-age children were too young to be aware of same-sex relationships. Parent speaks out over Birmingham school’s LGBT equality teaching As tempers flared, Ms Pulley said she felt “extreme isolation” and was “totally on my own to deal with something that was coming at us with great force”. “We suspended the programme because we came under extreme pressure from the DfE,” she told the BBC. “It occurred on a Wednesday evening before the next protest that was planned for th

Source: Breaking News

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