Teachers ordered to avoid ‘biased’ views of BLM and Stonewall

[McDuffy]

In the Times today, article is mainly on BLM and Churchill but good to see more coverage;

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a3c27a26-8f67-11ec-8d28-50e05b644342?shareToken=d1d558ba721f891126535db0ba4d3095

Teachers must avoid using material from campaigning organisations such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Stonewall that may have “partisan political views”, government guidance on impartiality states.

Schools are already required to teach in an impartial way but new guidance from the Department for Education (DfE) advises teachers on how to “tackle sensitive issues in a politically impartial way”.

@JoAnnewithanE

Because everything is white centric, the pics around our school, on the school website, the curriculum, the lunch menu, black kids
Are 7Xs more likely to be suspended or excluded in my school.
That’s a few reasons why

Yeah Rainbow, putting up a wall will definitely fix all these things. Or are actually doing something to address these very real issues you've so eloquently described?

@LK1972

What do you suggest then? With no funding, no resources and SLT who never respond?

Because everything is white centric, the pics around our school, on the school website, the curriculum, the lunch menu,

This needs to be sorted, this is a problem. this should be something to change as soon as possible.

@boltanddoorbell

Yup been trying! But I’m the only black teacher in the whole school and no one else seems to give
A shit

What do you suggest then? With no funding, no resources and SLT who never respond?

First and foremost see the head teacher and list what you have here, things where there is absolutely no black students represented. Things like the website can be changed very quickly.
Why are there photos of students on the lunch menu at all, this is odd?

The pics around the school can also be sorted, offer up an idea of an alternative wall display somewhere.

You absolutely have a right to be representative in the schools material.

Not a teacher, so don't have anything useful I'm afraid, although school website and pictures around a school would seem easier to address from my limited school volunteering. I appreciate your frustration and deep unease about the exclusion numbers, and SLTs are the same in all public organisations, uninterested unless pushed hard. The walls like yours are great for raising the profile of the issues, but not sure you're addressing the right crowd, kids are not decision makers. Ultimately it's an empty gesture

@boltanddoorbell

I didn’t mean the lunch menu has white kids pictures, it’s called the great British menu- so even the food isn’t inclusive!

I’ve seen the head 3 times since sept, raising these issues, explaining that racism isn’t being dealt with, his response is we have a zero tolerance to racism approach and when I asked what this means he didn’t really know!

I’ve created lessons on racism, reflective booklets, displays, weekly topics to go in the newsletters, a black and student of colour student voice group, I’ve spoken to parents, assemblies, it’s bloody exhausting doing it alone!

Sorry, but do you really think it's racist to call a menu "The Great British menu"? :/

If it's one thing we're good at in modern Britain it's enthusiastically embracing a huge range of food cultures. The Great British Menu of 2022 could contain pretty much anything.

When I lived in a big city in Italy it was a real effort to buy anything that wasn't traditionally Italian.

@Twiggles36

No it’s not racist, where did I say that? It’s just not very inclusive. Or the British menu could include black British food…

OnceuponaRainbow18
What did your last Ofsted report say? As that's what's meant to give schools the push if they're ignoring systemic racism?
Full credit to you for doing so much. But (not being critical of you) if it's the one teacher of colour in a school addressing these issues then that in itself raises concerns.
Schools need to start with data - what does behaviour, exclusions, attainment data, attendance at clubs, mental health, SEN say about different groups? There's usually significant differences between different ethnic groups in terms of achievement and exclusions for example. It's a whole school responsibility.

Going back to the subject of the thread, I suspect a brief audit in many schools would identify that issues of gender identlty are receiving a disproportionate amount of attention and £££ with fundamental issues of race, disability and sex discrimination being sidelined. Hopefully the issuing of this guidance will make schools think more carefully before unthinkingly using queer theory activist groups.

Not a mention of this is any of the pshe teachers groups I'm in. The problem is most won't consider Stonewall, Proud Trust, Educate and Celebrate, Diversity Role Models etc to be biased, so it won't occur to them these roles relate to them.

Onceuponarainbow what you are doing at your school sounds great. It must be very dispiriting that nobody else seems to care.

I think that it is a good thing that this has been raised, either all teachers can state any opinion they want (subject to the legal guidelines) or no opinions can be volunteered.

Clearly in some subjects particularly at GCSE and A level discussion does focus upon contentious issues - but teachers are there to promote debate not indoctrinate. What has happened over the course of the last 5 year so is the promotion of an agenda which dismisses other views as some form of prejudice or phobia. This has lead to the promotion of a set of ideals some of which most people would agree with some they might not - the point is they are views and not fact. Teachers are not there to promote those views - yes equality and respect are important but that is where it stops. Teachers should not be promoting political groups and that includes BLM , LBGT, pro-life, labour, conservative , the green party or any other group. Its too easy to say well we all accept BLM because that sets a precedent.

Some of this can be laid at the door of excessive workload I think.
SLT "by the way you are now also teaching PSHE to year 9 next week they need to do X
Where do you get the resources from? Online probably, as you don't have any time to make your own and school aren't providing any.
You might not have time to read them properly either. You might just think "oh Stonewall, they must be OK" because you don't know about the recent change in direction.

Re teachers making up their own mind, yes I'm sure some can but young over worked teachers (and old overworked ones) don't necessarily have the time or over sight / wider understanding - the tories obliterated the previous curriculum for primary and so twinkl and Facebook groups have stepped in, user run, sharing and copying policies and resources etc. I've seen bilge sold on tes.

The way I see school Facebook groups working now is exactly as described above. We had a new lovely teacher who I later realised pulled everything from twinkl Facebook groups and therefore hadn't a deeper understanding of why something was or wasn't applicable.

When I was a child at school I was subjected to (Christian) religious bias every day as a result of the 1944 Act. Fortunately I also learned to think. What is taught has potential for political bias of some kind, especially history and literature, but the essential thing is for kids to be taught how to assess information, spot crooked thinking and develop their own values.

@Goatsaregreat

We are officially inadequate, due an ofsted any moment. Our last head was taken to court and found to be institutionally racist, she swiftly left.

Our black kids make up 76% off all suspensions in our school, in fact I read an email where a deputy wanted to suspend 4 other black kids and was told not to cause our terrible data on black suspensions.

Every time I pop my head In the behaviour room I.e isolation room it’s full of black kids.

Our black kids are mainly PP and ofsted picked up the huge gap between PP kids and non PP kids.

I’ve suggested the kids go to extracurricular clubs but they laugh…again not inclusive clubs.

But I won’t highjack this thread anymore to main 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Good , children are being indoctrinated rather than taught these days . Education should have no political agenda or woke agenda

I think if we're going to allow teachers to openly support organisations like Stonewall and BLM, we need to extend it to organisations that support all persecuted groups (Jews (in North London there's a terrible problem with anti-semitism, just the other day a woman's windows were smashed and several orthodox Jewish men attacked), Travellers, Christians (hundreds of whom have been murdered in Northern Nigeria last year) ), the list goes on and on... Where do we stop?

This is so important WarriorN
Re teachers making up their own mind, yes I'm sure some can but young over worked teachers (and old overworked ones) don't necessarily have the time or over sight / wider understanding - the tories obliterated the previous curriculum for primary and so twinkl and Facebook groups have stepped in, user run, sharing and copying policies and resources etc. I've seen bilge sold on tes.
The way I see school Facebook groups working now is exactly as described above. We had a new lovely teacher who I later realised pulled everything from twinkl Facebook groups and therefore hadn't a deeper understanding of why something was or wasn't applicable

Under the last Labour government there were literally folder after folder that addressed every issue in schools - the tory government tore them all up (getting rid of 'red tape') leaving schools adrift, especially if they had new inexperienced leaders. Of course they've had to reintroduce it as with this guidance, but as you point out, in the absence of rigorous guidance there's some appalling dross been produced - sometimes by people who should be nowhere near children.

That's appalling OnceuponaRainbow18. I really hope that the Ofsted - painful as they are - gives leadership / governors etc the wake up they need and that you (and the kids) get effective support.