Cllr Ben Bradley, MP for Mansfield and Warsop has praised the 'common sense' announcement from the Department for Education that parents should be told what their children are learning in school.
Speaking in the Chamber, the former Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, said that he supports parental access to curriculum materials and that parents should know exactly what resources their children are accessing in school. This is particularly the case with areas of parental concerns, such as with topics of gender non-conformity.
The former Education Secretary, who has now been replaced by Michelle Donelan, stated that ““I just want to be clear here: parents should know what their children are being taught in school.
“There are clear requirements on schools in relation to providing parents with information about a school’s curriculum. We appreciate that parents have particular concerns about gender non-conformity, which is why we are developing very clear guidance, I hope, for the front line for schools to be able to deal with this.”
These comments follow amendments being tabled to the Schools Bill that requires schools to allow parents to view all curriculum materials used in schools when requested by the parents. This includes materials provided by third parties such as charities and other outside organisations.
Mr Bradley has welcomed this common-sense approach and, earlier this week, also welcomed the announcements that all new public buildings should have single sex spaces for men and women and that the role of 'Chief People Officer', advertised at a salary of £230,000 had been scrapped and a review announced into the vast array of 'diversity and inclusion' roles which cost the NHS millions per year.
Cllr Ben Bradley MP stated:
'We've had an excellent week of solid, common-sense announcements from Government on issues we shouldn’t back down on!
'Parents deserve to know what their children are learning and what materials they are accessing. This is even more important around issues such as gender non-conformity where we have all seen some materials that present hugely contested concepts as purely factual.
'Nowadays, the ideas and boundaries of what we all assumed were appropriate to be passed on to the next generation are being contested. As such it is vital that, when requested, parents have access to the materials their children use in the classroom.
'I welcome this announcement and look forward to even more common-sense measures coming from the government in the near future.'
