Education Secretary’s letter to parents: You have the right to see RSHE lesson material
The Education Secretary, Rt Hon Gillian Keegan MP, has made available to parents and carers a letter where she advises that, “You have a fundamental right to know what your children are being taught about healthy relationships, sex and development in school.” You can view the letter here.
She confirms that she has written to schools to ensure this, and that schools cannot use copyright restrictions as an excuse.
This is a very helpful resource which every parent can have in hand, and we at CViE are grateful.
Yet, there remains the case of Clare Page, for instance. Clare is taking the authorities to court to force them to be transparent, asking the question, ‘Why are schools so desperate to keep what they’re teaching kids about sex a secret from parents?’ (read the article here) Her case went to the Information Commissioner who backed the school’s choice to keep the lesson details secret from parents. The case is set for appeal at a tribunal.
This highlights the fact that parents should make no assumptions about how their approach will be received, and should be well-prepared.
The National Association of Head Teachers and the Association of School and College Leaders did not respond in a positive fashion to the Education Secretary’s letter, downplaying the concerns, suggesting that the problem is not widespread or common. ParentPower (a nationwide advocacy group of parents and educators) responded to this challenge to the Education Secretary on the issue of parental access to RSHE resources (available here).
The letter offers this reminder –
“By making all RSHE teaching content easily available to parents, either online or as otherwise requested, parents will no longer have to rely on brief summaries or select previews that invariably omit content that could be a potential future cause of contention. This will assist parents and schools alike in fostering productive and trustworthy working relationships with each other for the sake of our children’s education and welfare.”
CViE encourages our supporters to make use of the resources to hand and to be bold in overseeing what is put before their children on these often delicate matters.
We would be pleased to hear from any of our supporters on the issue of access and responses from schools to an approach from parents – email CViE at enquiries@cvie.org.uk.
