Schools required to consult parents (not merely “engage”)
‘RSHE Ready’ is a podcast series from the PSHE Association featuring professional educators offering guidance about what teachers can and should be doing in implementing the new Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) requirements.
In a recent episode, entitled “Parental Engagement”, there was an illuminating conversation with a representative of the National Association of Headteachers on the topic of how to ‘engage’ with parents in the process of forming a local RSHE curriculum. It was both revealing and concerning.
The law requires that parents be consulted by their local school in determining the content of the RSHE curriculum to be taught to their children. Most people understand the word ‘consultation’ to be a cooperative word, a word that has a sense of mutually-respecting parties arriving at an agreed strategy. Schools are not able to avoid such consultations because they are statutory requirements.
A realistic question on the mind of every parent with well-developed and strongly-held moral views – whether such views are informed by Christianity or any other faith – is whether their voice will be heard? Will there be a consultation of substance, or will they be shouldered out of the process? Or will they be patted on the head patronizingly by the teachers and given a participation sticker?
Concerningly, according to the opinion expressed in this podcast – hosted by the organization that will continue to drive much of the implementation of this government programme – it is more of the latter than the former.
Experienced policy-makers are not clumsy enough to be obvious about this, because they understand that it takes subtlety if their obviously-correct views are to prevail over those of the non-professionals i.e. parents. So, in discussing the core element of the process that involves parents, that which has always been held out by government as reassurance that parental voices will be heard, the parties in the podcast agree that “parental engagement” is a better term than consultation. This sets the entire tone for their conversation, and actually, one fears, for the imposition of these curricula.
It is not open to any group to substitute engagement for consultation, because they are entirely different and the Department for Education (DfE) requires the latter not the former. It is the timing that is crucial. Consultation precedes engagement. Consultation happens before any decisions are made. Engagement happens after. Consultation decides the content, engagement the form. Parents are meant to have a voice in what is taught, not merely in how it’s taught. Consultation is agreed, engagement is de facto imposed.
The podcast exposes what all concerned parents already suspected: they’re not part of the process. At least the part that matters, that sets the trajectory. The advice given is to “give clear information about the planned policy”. No, that’s not what parents want – they want to impact the planned policy, so they won’t need to clear information later because they helped develop it. The crumbs that the lofty professionals will deign to offer are described as “time to digest, to think about it”. Presumably the idea is that they will eventually give up and go away.
The reality is: parents will be excluded. All the promises of the government meant to allay fears of the imposition of a world view incompatible with honestly held moral views of parents were worth nothing. It will be the school informing of final decisions.
Which is, of course, business as usual. In the past, the school has done what it wanted but respected the concerns of parents to the degree that withdrawal was an option. That has been taken away. No right of withdrawal for the aspects most concerning. In fact, as was suggested in the podcast, there won’t even be a need for any new processes to be set up. There are already parents’ evenings and parent forums – these pre-existing tools ought to be sufficient for the concerned parent. Parents must not be led to think that this is “something big, something different”.
But that’s just the point. It is. Very different. Very big.
And the school decides. Then the school offers to explain it to you.
At one point, the podcast notes how the terminology “consultation” is frightening to schools. Of course it is! To anyone with a worldview needing imposing it is very frightening. And best avoided. This is not what was promised, but it’s what the PSHE Association is offering as advice for your local school.
Yes, this was just one podcast. But it would be naïve of concerned parents to not see what is happening before their very eyes.
The danger for the Christian is that schools don’t see the danger, generally. The secular world view thinks the carnal curriculum is wonderful, and more is always better. Schools just celebrated ‘School Diversity Week’, a dishonest attempt to conceal what is in reality a celebration of homosexuality.
There is core change happening in schools, and parents need to be alert to the fact that many in education think it best left to them to decide what is best for your children. No Christian parent, as those in but not of the world, should be prepared to surrender their responsibility for the moral upbringing of their child to the State.
In March 2020, CViE published a guide to the DfE Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) and Health Education Statutory Guidance. Within the guide there is a section that provides detail of what obligations are on schools to consult with parents regarding RSHE and this can be found by clicking here. There is also a useful annex containing possible questions to ask schools regarding their RSHE policy and curriculum together with a mnemonic POLITE as a reminder of how to approach your children’s school.
For those wishing to refer to DfE source documents and these are as follows:
DfE Relationships and Sex Education (RSC) And Health Education StatutoryGuidance
DfE Plan your relationships, sex and health curriculum – this guide is designed for schools planning their RSHE curriculum.
