Muireann- Verification of Engagement Activity Signed

Verification

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16GwJTUuBhm7_z7nJtMc1w6uaxKeVGqVU

 Acacias Community Primary School.

Acacias Community Primary School is a long-established community school with around 480 students and is situated in an ethnically diverse suburb of Manchester, called Burnage.  The school aims to provide its students with”a broad, balanced and differentiated curriculum” and has received the UNICEF silver rights-respecting school award. The school also aims to develop effective partnerships with parents and carers as well as the community it serves.  The school has recently experienced a number of parents protesting against its sex education curriculum, so I decided to head down to the school gate at pick-up time to ask a few parents their opinions. 

Overall I asked 8 parents or sets of parents to answer my questions.

This included both male and female guardians as well as a mix of ethnicities. One couple did initially agree to the survey but refused to answer my questions when the found out the topic was sex education – therefore consider these results out of 7.

Here are the results of my survey:

1. Do you feel involved in your child’s education?

Yes: 5 parents

No: 0 parents

Other: 2 parents (“Kind of” and “to an extent”)

Do you think that sex education should be taught in primary school?

Yes: 4 parents

No: 2 parents (“too young”)

Other: 1 parent (unsure as their child is too young to have this education yet)

Do you like the way it is taught in this school?

Yes: 2 parents

Others had very different comments:

• I would if the school communicated it with the parents, there have been issues with communication in the past
• There’s not enough depth… but it should be age-appropriate
• the new curriculum has not been decided yet  – so I’m not sure
• things have been taken out of the curriculum for the parents
• My child is too young to have had any of this yet
• I don’t know as my child hasn’t experienced any so far
• I’m not sure I know

Do you feel like the curriculum of the school should adapt to reflect the values of the parents and the community?

Yes: 6 Parents

No: 0

Other: 1 parent (” to an extent, it should have some flexibility but it has to respect some sort of national curriculum”)

Reflection

Overall, I am really grateful for the parents who gave up their time to answer my question – especially at a busy time in their day. I tried to ask both mothers and fathers as well as different ethnicities and people with different aged children. Ultimately I didn’t notice any correlation with opinions and ethnicity or gender as many people responded very differently.

This was a particularly nerve-racking engagement for me, approaching strangers to ask them about an issue that is clearly a sensitive topic for some parents at this school. I think this showed in the couple who didn’t want to answer ” any more questions on this topic” – which means this is an issue that they have perhaps been previously questioned about or involved in.  Given how recent the protests and complaints have been (only happening in the past few weeks) and the continued controversy at other schools in the UK I can definitely understand their decision to remain out of the issue.

From those who did respond, the results did surprises me. Almost of the parents felt that the school should have to adapt to reflect the views of the parents and community which is particularly significant as the school have made adjustments to the curriculum since the protest. Most parents also said they felt involved in their child’s education which is perhaps a result of the school’s actions. Whether or not parents felt that sex-ed should be taught at primary school seemed to be the question that the parents felt the most strongly for or against. The school’s website says that sex and conception isn’t covered in the PSHE curriculum, instead it provides lessons on “growing and changing”. It says that parents reserve the right to remove their child from these lesson but the school encourage that parents let their child attend these lesson to learn this information in a safe environment.

I think the most interesting response was from a parent that said that it isn’t was is taught so much as things being clearly communicated with parents so they have that transparency and rapport with the school. I think this is especially pertinent as I have noticed that, from my personal experience, having access to decisions regarding education policy isn’t very easy in the UK and the system isn’t as transparent as it should be.

Overall, I think this was a very important engagement for me as it allowed me to hear a diverse range of opinions and engage with the general public, individuals whose families are affected by this issue. I think this gave me a better understanding of the different perspectives on the issue.

People need information to make informed decisions… decisions born out of ignorance or half a story – that’s not education.

The Interview

Sue Woodroofe has been a secondary school teacher in different countries as well as a principal to both primary and secondary students, both in the UK and abroad. She is now the principal of an interdenominational independent school in Yorkshire. Sue was kind enough to let me interview her on the role of religion in education.

1. What do you feel that you have gained from the engagement?

This engagement really helped me put lots of the ideas and opinions that I had heard from parents and politicians into perspective. This gave me a valuable insight into the views of educators and I was surprised to see that despite the differences in the national curriculum and the different pressures from parents and the state, there were a lot of similarities in the views of Muireann Nic a Ri (Irish teacher) and Sue Woodroofe.

2. How does it inform the political issue?

This interview was very relevant to lots of the issues brought up by my political topic and Sues’ responses were very detailed and thought-provoking. Her views as a Christian teaching in a secular environment were very interesting especially her view that the responsibility of schools is to provide students with the wider context / the bigger picture for them to place their own views into.

3. What are the most important points to take away from this engagement?

Sue ideas were that students have a right to information and that a national curriculum needs to represent the views of different groups to give students the ability to reach informed opinions not born out of ignorance or bias. She did recognise however that schools often experience enormous pressure from parents and that the pressure is inevitably less for independent schools than that of state schools.  Sue’s responses helped me realise the importance of religious education for most families and her responses also acknowledged that when talking about a particular religious group’s view on sex education it is important to recognise the hugely diverse spectrum within religions with many people of the same religion holding different views.

4. What key concepts and theories does it relate to in the global politics course?

This links to the idea of human rights as people have the right to have access to education as well as the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Human rights are, by design, indivisible and therefore all rights are of equal importance and cannot be placed above another. Governments are not permitted to choose some rights over others and have to respect all rights that are afforded to individuals. Whilst the government can try to increase tolerance and acceptance as part of a national curriculum the cannot/shouldnot do so in a way that undermines the importance of freedom of religion.