As reported by The Telegraph, calls for a legal duty on schools to disclose sex education materials grow as MPs rally behind a “sex education transparency” Bill, aiming to involve parents in the process.
The MPs are backing a “sex education transparency” Private Members’ Bill introduced by Miriam Cates, the MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, that would force schools to share with parents copies of materials used in lessons.
The legislation would also ban schools in England from using externally produced teaching resources for relationships and sex education lessons that have not been published.
The Prime Minister addressed the issue at the Conservative conference when he said “it shouldn’t be controversial for parents to know what their children are being taught in school about relationships”. But he has not said how he will make schools share materials with parents.
Mrs Cates introduced the Bill after Clare Page, a parental campaigner, lost a legal battle to see the sex education plan at her daughter’s school. She has been fighting to obtain a copy of the materials since her 15-year-old daughter came home from school two years ago and said she had been taught that “heteronormativity” was “bad” and that she should be “sex positive” towards relationships.
A tribunal judge ruled in June that the commercial interests of the third-party sex education provider outweighed the public interest in forcing the school to release the lesson plan.
The judge made the ruling despite acknowledging that Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, had written to all schools saying that “parents should be able to view all curriculum materials”, including “where an external agency advises schools that their materials cannot be shared due to restrictions in commercial law”.
Mrs Cates is calling on the Government to include the legislation in the King’s Speech in November. She said: “My question would be, if this isn’t in the King’s Speech, how does the Government intend to make this a reality?”
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