AIBU to think that this is political and should not be supported by a state school

[FlamingoCroquet]

(I have name-changed as this is very identifiying to any other parents or teachers from the same school. But I've been on here for 8 years)

DC's primary school informed us in the newsletter that the school is supporting a scheme to provide aid - specifically a backpack of items - to unaccompanied boys age 11-17 at the Jungle camp at Calais, in partnership with an organisation called Calais Action. They are asking parents/children to donate. This is to coincide with Refugee Week.

I'm very uneasy about this. I don't want to get into an argument about the whole migrant/refugee debate, but I feel that this is a political action and should not be supported by a state school. I am not against helping refugees in general, and would not complain if they were raising money for the Red Cross or Medicins Sans Frontieres. But I have major misgivings about supporting a group called Calais Action.

I'm thinking about emailing the school governors to raise my complaint, but I'm reluctant to be seen as that person who is anti-charity, when my DD has several years left at this school. What do you think?

They're economic migrants who've been smuggled across Europe by gangs of people-traffickers, dumped in Calais and pointed in the direction of the white cliffs.

Why on earth would you not want to help children who've been people-trafficked and dumped in Calais?

They are children in a desperate situation. Giving them some much-needed supplies will not affect the political issues one way or the other. But it will help those children, albeit in a very minor and limited way. I say well done to the school.

FlamingoCroquet, would you have called the children sent on the Kindertransport economic migrants? Thought not, there is little difference between them and the children in Calais. Why else do you think people like Sir Alf Dubbs speak out on their behalf?

they are still kids and could probably contribute more than the current middle class england suckers we currently have to deal with

I don't particularly want to get into a debate on the meaning of the word refugee. This isn't a thread about whether people in general, or individuals, should send aid to the camps in Calais, it's about whether a primary school should. People saying 'if you don't like it don't donate' are completely missing the point.

I can read. I just don't believe you. Your attitude in following posts doesn't indicate that you possess much in the way of compassion for others.

They're not children and they're not orphans. Did you see Alf Dubs talking to some of them a while ago? They were towering over him, they had five o'clock shadows.

Putting Calais Action to one side OP, you've stated that state schools should not support political causes. I can't find any law or precedent prohibiting this - can you?

Leaving whether this is a politcal issue aside for a moment, Explain to me why a primary school can't get involved in a politcal issue anyway?

the primary school my children attend is involved in many issues, lots are to do with welsh issues as we are a welsh medium school. whats the issue with that? i dont really understand what your objection is.

Which sorts of charities should schools support in your opinion, OP?

What would grown men towering over someone else do with 11 /12/13 yo clothes and/or supplies?

'Tbh you sound like a kipper voting, little englander who thinks charity should start at home yet probably does nothing bar 5 quid to children in need (and probably complains that some of that money goes abroad). '

I agree

Also given there's a lot of schools raising money for this HUMANITARIAN cause I don't believe you name changed for that reason I think you did so as this particular opinion of yours is one you are so ashamed of you don't even want it linked to your usual mn name.

Yabvu to think YOUR OPINION should mean an ENTIRE SCHOOL should not do this. There will be plenty of parents (including immigrant/refugees? I wonder if there's a lot in your area?) who WILL want to support this cause. It's not up to you.

They're not children and they're not orphans. Did you see Alf Dubs talking to some of them a while ago? They were towering over him, they had five o'clock shadows.

I was 5ft9 at 14, my brother was 6ft. he was shaving daily at 15, as were many boys i know. what the hell does that prove?!

YANBU - I dont think primary schools should support activities as a whole which have a political bias. The kids in primary schools are children too and should be treated as such - exposing children as young as 4/5 to the grim facts of the migrant / refuge situation is just unfair.

Let them be kids - there is plenty of time for introducing them to this rubbish when they are older and able to form their own opinions

Schools regularly support the bullshit, racist scam that is Samaritans' Purse. (I have written to DS' school on several occasions objecting to this, and most of the parents just ignore the appeal, but it is still going on).
It's worth looking at every 'charity' you are asked to involve your DC in supporting, and deciding whether or not it's one you want to give your backing to, but the fact that schools sometimes support charities which are either not worthy of the name or contentious for some other reason is not actually a bad thing. Just tell your DC, in age-appropriate terms, why you are going to decline to support whatever charity it is.

madcapped you don't know Flamingo, so who are you to judge her levels of compassion?

you won't get anywhere here Flamingo. I think its completely inapproprate (and weird) of your child's primary school to get involved in this clearly political organisation.

My DH teaches at a refugee school near Calais. There are more boys for various reasons, ( more boys travel, and women and girls are more likely to be housed outside the Jungle)but they really are destitute -and deserving.

Whatever your stance on migration, refugees etc, these children are innocent and traumatised. Providing them with some basic items IS humanitarian, not political.

Getting our children involved is also giving them a powerful message about the dangers of extremism, and may contribute to reducing radicalisation in the future, so please rethink!

I'm not sure how prescriptive your list is, but calculators and sticker books go down very well :)

YANBU

A third of the 420 unaccompanied minors in the Calais camp have gone missing since the French authorities demolished the southern section of the Jungle last month, according to a census by Help Refugees, a grassroots charity. In January, Europol warned 10,000 vulnerable children had vanished after arriving in Europe over the past two years. On Tuesday, Germany said almost 6,000 refugee children had been reported missing last year.

Putting Calais Action to one side OP, you've stated that state schools should not support political causes. I can't find any law or precedent prohibiting this - can you?

I don't know if there is any law against it, probably not. But surely schools have a duty to be non-political. There would be uproar if a headteacher told the students how they should be voting in assembly one Monday.

Yes, possibly IABU in that most charities have some aspect to them that could be classed as political.

I am not lacking in compassion (thanks for that slur, pp), but I would prefer to teach my children that it's not black and white, that the situation in Calais is a complex one, that no-one has found a solution to the Europe-wide refugee crisis, that the UK has a duty to help refugees, but that perhaps encouraging an illegal camp in France is not the best way to do that, etc etc..

A third of the 420 unaccompanied minors in the Calais camp have gone missing

Call me a cynic, but they're probably here, having arrived illegally in the back of a lorry.

At my DH's school, many of the children on roll (300) are under 8. They adore 'Frozen' and dinosaur stickers, just like our children. They really do deserve help ( as do the older teens who don't tend to access school).

Op- you disgust me. Genuinley. And I haven't often said that on Mumsnet.

why shouldn't your precious children know that there are other children only a few years older than them and only a few miles away from them who have gone from a place where they were living in constant fear of bombs being dropped on them, to a place where they live in constant fear of the tear gas canisters of the French police? Children who constantly suffer injuries, because they spend their evenings trying to jump on trucks to bring them to England? Children who were doing well in school, who was settled, who had lives in professional careers to look forward to before their world was blown apart. Tell me again why are your children shouldn't be aware that not every child in the world is as lucky as them.

For those questioning why this is purely for boys, there are very few girls in the Calais camps. Those that are usually with their families, and do you have access to the day centre at the Jules Ferry centre. There are a huge number of unaccompanied minor boys. The vast majority of these, if the UK government would only get is fucking finger out, would be here. They are children who have family members living here in the UK who are more than willing to support them to provide a home for them. But because we have no real governmental wish to increase the numbers of migrants coming to this country at such a "sensitive" time, feet are being dragged and it is taking far longer than it should to process these children's genuine claims for family reunification in the UK.

And the other reason it's teenage boys is not just because the families want them to come here and on money so that they can join them. It's because teenage boys are hugely at risk of being forced to join one or other of the forces fighting in war-torn countries. Family send their 14-year-olds away because they don't want them to become soldiers on either side.

I don't see how a school can avoid being political. For instance, I would expect a school to teach that racism, sexism, homophobia and the like are wrong. There are political parties that disagree with that. Should schools stop such teaching because members of those parties don't like such views being propagated?

Queen haven't you heard? There are no children..only economic migrants with 5 o'clock shadows